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Can I Please Feed the Animals?

Posted by Bear World on Mar 26, 2015 in Blog | Comments Off on Can I Please Feed the Animals?

When you come visit Yellowstone Bear World, you’ll see lots of exciting wildlife—and lots of “Please Don’t Feed the Wildlife” signs. While that motto has become a funny photo-op or t-shirt print, we aren’t joking when we say it. Feeding the wildlife around Yellowstone can pose a serious threat to both you and the animals. What’s All the Fuss About? When you give a wild animal a piece of your granola bar, there are consequences far beyond the fact that you...

Your Next Family Vacation

Posted by Bear World on Feb 25, 2015 in Blog | Comments Off on Your Next Family Vacation

Family vacations: stuffing more coolers and bags than you knew you owned into every open spot in the car; squinting your eyes at every street sign to be the first one to find Q in the alphabet game; waking up in a position you didn’t think you could sleep in. We all remember our best family trips for years afterward, and we want to create those same cherished memories for our own kids. If you’re searching for an unforgettable vacation, look no further than...

Yellowstone Wildlife Spotlight: Gray Wolf

Posted by Bear World on Feb 2, 2015 in Blog | Comments Off on Yellowstone Wildlife Spotlight: Gray Wolf

Next up in our series of animal spotlights, we have the gray wolf. Like many other Yellowstone animals, gray wolves faced extinction at one point in history. But in recent years their packs have a made a comeback in Alaska, Canada, northern Washington, northern Idaho, northern Montana, northeast Minnesota, and of course, Yellowstone. The gray wolf is an important predator in its ecosystems. It balances animal populations by hunting moose, caribou, deer, and smaller...

Yellowstone Wildlife Spotlight: American Bison

Posted by Bear World on Jan 6, 2015 in Blog | Comments Off on Yellowstone Wildlife Spotlight: American Bison

Here at Bear World, you’ll find a variety of Yellowstone wildlife. Probably one of the most notable (beside the bears of course) is the American bison—or as many people know them, buffalo. Bison are the hulking herd animals of Yellowstone, roaming in groups across the grasslands. Bulls grow up to be around six feet tall and twelve feet long while cows are five feet tall and eight feet long. With dimensions like that, these bison can weigh up to 2,000...

The Super Sniffers

Posted by Bear World on Dec 2, 2014 in Blog | Comments Off on The Super Sniffers

You may have heard the surprising statistic that a bear’s sense of smell is seven times greater than that of a bloodhound (which can already pick out smells 1,000 times better than a human being). Bears are leagues ahead of us when it comes to sniffing out mates, danger, and most importantly, food. While you might be able to detect fresh baked chocolate chip cookies when you walk into your home, bears can catch the scent of their prey from a few miles away—or around...

How Do Bears Spend the Winter?

Posted by Bear World on Nov 3, 2014 in Blog | Comments Off on How Do Bears Spend the Winter?

With the approaching winter, you may be looking forward to ice-skating, hot chocolate, knitted scarves, snowball fights, and gift-giving. Or you might be dreading scraping off your car in the morning before work. Either way, you have a pretty good idea of how you will spend your winter months. But what about bears? Do you know how these famous animals will spend the season? Hibernation…? Thanks to decades of cartoons and movies, we all think of bears as soon as we...

The Iconic Teddy Bear

Posted by Bear World on Oct 6, 2014 in Blog | Comments Off on The Iconic Teddy Bear

What do America’s 26th president and a large, lumbering omnivore have in common? They both passed their names on to a small, cuddly creation we know as the Teddy bear. Across the globe, both children and adults recognize the Teddy bear even over a century after its invention. You probably remember snuggling one yourself as a kid—or maybe just last night. But why do we call them Teddy bears? How did our favorite grizzly and black bears become associated with the...

GRIZZY BEARS!!!!!

Posted by Bear World on Feb 25, 2011 in Blog | Comments Off on GRIZZY BEARS!!!!!

The word “grizzly” in its name refers to “grizzled” or grey hairs in its fur, but when naturalist George Ord formally named the bear in 1815, he misunderstood the word as “grisly”. The grizzly bear is a subspecies of the brown bear. A pronounced muscular hump occurs on their shoulders which strengthens their front limbs for digging and running. Grizzlies can attain a speed of about 35 mph. Once mated with a male in the summer, the...

Elk (Cervus elaphus)

Posted by Bear World on Feb 9, 2011 in Blog | Comments Off on Elk (Cervus elaphus)

Bull = Male adult; Cow = Female adult; Calf = baby; Spike = Yearling male Calves are Typically born in late May through early June and are born spotted and scentless An elks diet consists mostly of grasses, forbs, shrubs, tree bark, and twigs An elk’s stomach has four chambers: the first stores food, and the other three digest it Antlers = Only male elk have antlers; Bulls shed and grow a new set of antlers every year; New antlers are covered in fuzzy skin called...

Bison

Posted by Bear World on Feb 3, 2011 in Blog | Comments Off on Bison

Also known as the American buffalo (although it isn’t related to the true buffalo). Due to their large size few predators attack bison. However, wolf packs can take down a bison. There are even documented cases of a single wolf taking down bison The bison’s main food is grass. The rutting, or mating, season lasts from June through September with peak activity in July and August. At this time, the older bulls rejoin the herd and fights often take place...