A Beary Nice Life for a Grizzly Family

A Special Refuge for Animals

The Moonridge Animal Park is a special place for animals in the heart of the San Bernardino National Forest in California. Since 1959, injured and orphaned wildlife are brought to the park to be cared for.

Brown bears, a snow leopard, coyotes, mountain lions, bald eagles, raccoons, wolves, mule deer, bison and lots of other Alpine wildlife have found shelter here. The rangers and volunteers work hard to return as many animals as they can to the wild.

But some animals are too sick, injured or tame to survive on their own. Sometimes they become too used to living around humans. Thanks to the volunteers and rangers who work at the Moonridge Animal Park, these animals have a lifetime home.

One of the most popular animals at the park is a family of Grizzly bears. In 1996, the volunteers at Moonridge heard that a family of grizzly bears were in big trouble.A mother and her two cubs were about to lose their home at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

The problem was there was no room for them there.The Woodland Park Zoo had two choices: find another home for the bears, or euthanize (kill) them. Desperate to find a home for the bears, the zoo sent out a call for help.

The Friends of the Moonridge Animal park, led by President "Paddy", rallied the citizens of Big Bear. Youth groups, Girl and Boy Scouts, the local Harley Davidson Club, lots of families and civic leaders got together. They had yard sales and put coin containers in every store in Big Bear. They worked hard and did an impossible job. They raised the money and got donations of money and supplies. People put in the hard work needed to build a special enclosure for the Grizzly family. In just a few short months, the Grizzly family was saved!

There used to be hundreds of thousands of grizzly bears living in Big Bear Valley. That's how the town got its name. The Grizzly Bear is even on the state flag of California. But cattle ranchers didn't like the bears. They were afraid that the bears would kill their cattle. In 1922, the last free roaming Grizzly bear in California was shot and killed.

Grizzly Bears aren't the only bears in trouble. Brown bears have been considered "threatened" since 1975. What's bad for bears is the fact that humans and bears both need a lot of space to life in. There aren't very many wild spaces left. So human and bear territory often overlap.

Bears are naturally curious. They often sneak into campgrounds to eat leftovers or steal food. They get into trash dumpsters. The trouble is, bears lose their fear of humans when they get handouts. They often return to campgrounds to get another free meal. That's when the trouble starts. Sometimes they kill smaller animals, even pets, for food. They break into cars and picnic baskets looking for food. They will even charge at people, bellowing, demanding a hand out.

If a bear gets used to humans, they start living near humans. Then the bear is labeled a "nuisance." The rangers only choice is to catch the bear and try to relocate it. They use pepper spray, rubber bullets, noisemakers and horn honking to try to get them to go away. If they don't leave the area, then the bear must be captured. The only choices the forest rangers have are to: relocate the bear to a zoo or kill it. Often, a bears only hope for survival is for humans to find a zoo or animal park, like Moonridge, who is willing to take them in.

What People Can Do For Grizzlies

People can live peacefully with bears. All you have to remember when you camp out is:

The bears' future is a desperate one. Much of their natural territory is now wanted by humans. Displaced bears have nowhere to go. In the battle between bears and humans for a place to live, the bears usually lose. If these bears are going to survive, people will need to set aside large, protected habitats for them. Bears need a few wild places set aside so they can live too.

Good News For the Grizzlies!

There are a couple of places in California where humans have cared enough to give a home to the California state bear. Fresno's Zoo and Big Bear's Moonridge Animal Park both give shelter to these magnificent bears. Now the Grizzlies and other injured orphan animals have a home for life in Big Bear Valley.

Would you like to see the Grizzlies? The Moonridge Animal Park would love for you to come! The park is run by the Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park Department. You can stop by the zoo in Big Bear California at almost any time of year. For information about the zoo, please call (909)584-1171. PST

Moonridge Park is open from May-October every day,from 10:00am to 5:00pm (weather permitting.)

From November to April, the park is open on weekends and holidays from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

There's a great feeding tour with a guide who tells the special history of the animals. You can also meet Chango, an endangered snow leopard who also lives at the park.

Friends of the Moonridge Zoo

The Moonridge Animal Park is very proud to have the chance to bring the Grizzly bears back to the valley that was named for them. Would you like more information about their efforts to save injured and orphaned animals? Would you like to adopt a wild bird or an animal for your very own? If you would like more information about their adoption program or wish to send a donation for the animals, please write to:

Friends of the Moonridge Zoo
P.O. BOX 6127
Big Bear Lake, California 92315

Special thanks to AGW reporter, Renee, 9 of California for writing this article.