Work Begins on the Hibernation Habitat

For the past week we've been working away at clearing some of the snow and setting up Grinder and Coola's hibernation habitat.

The bears have begun to move around more frequently and have been seen looking out of their den at their habitat. This is to be expected given our slightly warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours.

If all goes to plan the habitat should be ready in the next week or two and the bears will be able to come out and play in the snow. It is always a really exciting day when the bears first emerge. They love the snow and spend most of the day romping around, wrestling and rolling in the snow to clean their fur after a long winter's dormancy.

Spring approaches...

Whew, things have been a little hectic here on Grouse Mountain for the past few weeks with first the Olympic Games and now the Paralympic Games. For the entire Olympic period, the NBC Today Show was broadcasting from the mountain top and there was a flurry of activity everywhere you looked. Yet, through this all Grinder and Coola remained mostly asleep.

The last week of February was unusually warm and the bears stirred enough to prompt us into starting the fenceline of their Hibernation Habitat (the area directly outside of the bear hotel and the first section of habitat we put up each year). But, as it's want to do, as soon as we started on the fence, the snow came fast and hard. We had to delay fence construction, but it did not matter as Grinder and Coola had gone back into a deeper sleep. Now, however, a couple weeks later, things are warming up a bit and they are beginning to move around a lot more, as you can see on our den camera . Both bears are still looking chubby, probably due to the milder winter we had this year, but both look to be in excellent health.

Once we are sure Mother Nature does not plan for any more large dumps of snow we will finish off the habitat and open the doors to the bear hotel. But for now we wait and see...

For those of you who missed them, the NBC Today Show did two video features on our refuge. They focus on our pack of Timber Wolves, but Grinder and Coola do make an appearance! You can view them on our wildlife video page.

More updates to follow!