Bear Country USA

Bear Country was near our RV park and we had been told not to miss it and we were glad we didn’t.

Bear Country is a sort of a large Drive-Through Zoo, but not like anything I have ever seen. When you enter and pay your fee, you are cautioned (read: ORDERED!!) to keep your windows up, doors and moon roofs closed and to stay INSIDE your car. Soon you see why.

As you drive the paved road, signs are posted telling which animals you will see in each area. There are fences, but each type of animal has a very large area in which to roam. Some cover several acres.

The gates into each area are open with a sort of “cattle crossing” built into the road, but with much wider spaces between the bars so that they can’t step on the bars and get out of their designated areas.

First we got to the Elk area.  There was a herd of elk, not just one or two. They had just been fed so were pretty much busy with that. There were lots of big, beautiful racks.

Next was the Artic Wolf. I don’t know how many of these were there, we saw several. They are large, long-haired white wolves.

All the animals were very used to cars and would walk right up beside your vehicle. However, these guys were a bit scary. I was glad the windows were up.

The Big Horn Sheep and the Mountain Goats were so interested in their breakfast, that posing for pictures was of no interest to them. Can’t really blame them.

Then we got to the bears. There were tons and tons (literally!) of bears. There had to be 50-75 or so adult bears. I’ve never seen so many in one place!  They had a huge area, as did most of the animals and they roamed around on paths in the grass or walked up and down the roads or snoozed in the trees.

The Timber Wolves were also in this area.

In contrast to the Artic Wolves, these are almost black. They must not get along as the Artic and the Timber Wolves were in completely different areas.

The Mountain Lions were in a higher security area, taller fences, etc.  They were totally distracted by the fresh meat they were gnawing on.

Then it was back to bears again.

So far, all the bears we had seen were black bears. Black bears come in all colors, mostly black, brown, cinnamon, but some are also a creamy white.

This big black bear didn’t seem happy with the huge acreage that he had to roam and really wanted to get out into the buffalo area next door. He kept pacing back and forth in front of the grates that kept him in his own neighborhood.

Besides widely spaced bars, across the open gate area, there were vibrating wires in between them. I don’t know if they were electrified or not, but he was not about to step in there to find out.

Mama Buffalo had a little calf running along behind her as she was heading to the feeding area. He was a cute little guy and had to run to keep up with Mom.

There were just a couple Grizzly Bears that we saw. They were in an area that was more zoo-like, although it was a large enclosure, they didn’t have all the acreage to roam that the black bears and the other animals had.

There were also river otters and a few other animals in this special area, but the main attraction was…

BEAR CUBS….PILES OF BEAR CUBS!!! Once again, I have never seen so many at one time. This enclosure had to have had 50 or more cubs of all colors…playing, growling, snoozing…

These wires over the cubs are to keep people out (and maybe cubs in) but it did nothing to keep someone from dropping a pair of sunglasses into the cage.

They immediately became the cub’s favorite toy. One would grab them and run while others chased and then wrestled them away and another chase would ensue. It was pretty funny to watch. Too bad for the person without sunglasses.

There was no way to get them all in one picture. As you can see, some are napping while others chew on one another’s ears. It was mass bedlam but so much fun to watch.

This poor little brown bear just wants to take a nap in the midst of these troublemakers.

Tomorrow we spend some more time in Custer State Park.