This morning the cloudiness and threat of rain continued and we decided to go to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.
http://www.grizzlydiscoveryctr.com/
“The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center's primary mission is to provide visitors to the Yellowstone area an opportunity to observe, understand and appreciate grizzly bears and gray wolves.
The bears at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center had to be removed from the wild because they were becoming dangerously comfortable around humans. Their stories help share a valuable lesson of how people can take the proper steps to ensure bears stay forever wild. The wolves at the Center are ambassadors, providing a greater understanding of this predator in the Yellowstone ecosystem.”
The link above has some detailed information about each of the bears and wolves.
Since our ticket was good for two days, we decided to do as much as we could outside.
On the outside, there are three animal areas: Bear Habitat, Wolf Habitat, and the Raptor area. Our first stop was the Naturalist Cabin where we heard about the three wolf packs at the center and the stories of the packs.
There are two huge windows that look out at the High Country Wolf Pack and the Granite Wolf Pack. The cabin has displays and videos about the wolves in Yellowstone.
This is Akela, the Alpha Female from the Granite Wolf Pack:
The high country wolf pack:
Leopold from the Granite Wolf Pack:
Such beautiful animals.
There are rangers and naturalists at both the Bear Habitat and the Wolf Habitat that hold programs throughout the day and are there to answer any questions.
Very interesting story:
The pictures are not in order time wise because we went back and forth from the wolf habitat to the bear habitat.
There are eight bears at the center and they are outside at various times. Only one is out by himself and the others are either outside with one to five bears.
The outside habitat:
The bears are outside from 30 – 60 minutes then go back to their dens. When it is clear, the habitat is cleaned up and food is hid. Since most bears forage for their food, this gives them that opportunity.
Five of the bears were out during this time:
Love this back scratcher:
The center also tests bear resistant containers for various companies. This dumpster was today’s test. They put lots of “smelly food” in the container and film the bears trying to get inside. (I forgot how they determine pass or fail, sorry.) The bears were trying their best:
Bear Videos:
“Maybe if I rock it!”
Or climb on it:
I need to think about this a little more:
About 5 minutes before their outdoor time ended, they headed toward the door to their dens.
How cute 
!
And then it was Sam’s turn. Sam is the only bear out by himself because of his size – he is HUGE!!
He took one look and sniff at the dumpster and decided to turn it over:
WOW! I wouldn’t want to meet Sam in the wild!
Some of the containers that failed:
They have a section on how to stay safe in the wild and another section on how to make your property bear proof – very interesting.
There is also an eagle aviary and raptor aviary:
We went to the amphitheater for the birds of prey program where we met these beautiful creatures:
Can I say WOW again! As the Birds of Prey program was ending, it started to rain so we headed inside to see some of the exhibits:
About this time, we were getting hungry so we decided to head home – going thru the center store first – :
The rain continued for a good portion of the afternoon. Nora joined us for supper and they we enjoyed a great campfire after the rains stopped.
What a great day!
We are heading back to the Discovery Center tomorrow so stay tuned.
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