 The ground is steep near the shore of the Andree Clark Bird Refuge.
It's a good place to put an artificial mountain of sandstone boulders and mounded earth. Bears will prowl here.
The train tracks curve along the shore, and you might not see a bear at first. You might have to walk the 600-foot path
surrounding the bear habitat, because the bears could be anywhere, lounging near the waterfall at the top or roaming in the
tumbled boulders and deep-cut streams. They will seem separated from you only by very rough terrain.
It will look natural. We plan to go into the mountains and find a natural rock outcropping and
make latex molds of it, then reconstruct it in the Zoo. The mounded earth among the boulders will
be covered with grasses and bushes and conifers and felled trees for the bears to maul.
At birth, bear cubs are about the size of young rabbits and extremely weak. The mother is
furiously protective of them. Our cubbing den will be deep inside the bear habitat, a warm,
dark and safe place where remote-control TV cameras will monitor and record the births and early
stages of bear growth without endangering the cubs (or the keepers).
Bears stand flat on their feet. Almost all other animals stand on modified toes,
but bears and people stand plantigrade. We share many traits with them: bears are omnivores,
able to feed in almost any environment; they have stereoscopic vision, good
eye-paw co-ordination, and high intelligence.
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