Just a block away from the entrance to Yellowstone Park in West Yellowstone, Montana, is a refuge that takes in grizzly bears, wolves, and orphaned birds of prey, who can no longer take care of themselves in the wild or who have become a nuisance. The Grizzly Bear and Wolf Discovery Center is a unique opportunity to see these animals up close.

The Center is home to eleven wolves bred in captivity for use by the film industry who therefore cannot be released into the wild. They live in two separate packs — the High Country Wolf Pack and the River Valley Pack — in large enclosures. Each consists of trees, logs, bushes, caves and in winter, plenty of snow. In addition to being provided with a regular diet of meat and bones, the keepers devise ways to keep the animals entertained. They hide treats (sometimes a chicken or an elk carcass, other times some meaty bones) and spray the trees and bushes with various “scents” including strange ones like soy sauce and maple syrup to tantalize the animals.

We spend several hours observing the High Country Wolf Pack — McKinley, the Alpha male, his brother, Leopold, Adara (the only female in the pack) and her brother, Takoda. They spend a good part of the time searching for the treats or rolling around and rubbing themselves in the scent left by the keepers. Their behavior is typical of any wolf pack with the alpha male finding and hoarding his prizes while fighting off any attempt by the others (or by a flock of ravens) to steal his things.

The Center is also home to seven grizzly bears including Sam and Illie (found orphaned along the coast of Alaska) and Spirit, a Yellowstone Grizzly with a penchant for food that humans eat, who was captured and placed in the center when she became a nuisance. Grizzly bears are huge with paws the size of a dinner plate. They pad around their enclosure, reaching up into a tree to retrieve an orange left by a keeper or lifting logs to get at the food underneath.

In addition to seeing and observing the animals,  you can also visit the exhibit “Bears: Imagination and Reality” which explores the real and imaginary information about bears and provides fascinating insights into this lovable but ferocious creature. There are also demonstrations of birds of prey by the naturalist. During our visit, we meet Tegan, a male Great Horned Owl who was blown out of his nest and rescued by a trucker. The bird has bonded to humans and does not know how to behave like an owl, even to the point of ignoring live mice in its enclosure because it has never been taught to hunt with its powerful talons.

There is always a contradiction when you see animals in captivity. By rights, they should be out in the wild but these animals would either have died or been killed because they were a threat to humans. Instead, they live at the Center where seemingly happy, they serve the purpose of education. Watching the interaction of the wolves or the powerful paws of a grizzly bear swatting away a piece of wood, personalize the animal and vividly remind the observer of the need to care for the environment and respect all the species.

IF YOU GO
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is at 201 South Canyon, West Yellowstone. It is open 365 days a year, from 0830 to 1600 in the winter. To get to West Yellowstone you can fly to Bozeman, Montana and then take the bus (Karst Stage ). The desk is next to baggage claim at the airport. It is about a three hour drive to West Yellowstone.

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