There’s no other place in the world, I’m certain, where you can witness wild grizzly bears hibernating their way through winter in a den designed to replicate the dry log they might otherwise chose as their seasonal nest — and just a dozen feet away from busy ski trails. At the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife
(North Vancouver, 604-984-0661, www.grousemountain.com), you can see four fast-growing orphaned cubs via hidden infrared camera ( get up there before they become a lumbering 6oo to 900 pounds each). In winter, they’re snoozing and consuming their excess fat. When the bears emerge in spring, you can watch them playing in the snow, eating berries, scaling trees, and generally messing about their forest retreat. Bears will be bears.
Run by wildlife veterinarian Ken Macquisten, the refuge was estab¬lished after two cubs, Coola and Grinder, were found abandoned and starving in the wilderness of coastal and southeast BC respectively. Since then, twins Can and Boo, whose sleeping mother was shot by a passing motorist in central BC, have brought the total number of grizzlies to four males — the maximum number the reserve can hold. This fact motivated Macquisten to turn his attention to providing ways to ultimately return orphaned bears to the wild.
Grouse Mountain also lets fly highly skilled birds of prey — falcons, eagles, and hawks — in free-flight demonstrations daily from June to September.
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