Bears! Beavers Wolverines Wolves Raccoons Badgers

Well, the bears weren't on display while we were there. Or so the sign said, anyway... ;) We did our best to fill the void. I hope the other bears don't think we're scabs. On the left are David and I with Jonathan, a nice guy we met at Spring Thaw. He and his partner Patrick drove us out there. On the right are just David and I.

Not only were there Bears on display, they were taking over the park. Wandering the trails, buying the merchandise, and consuming anything they can get their paws on. Not that that's a _bad_ thing, mind you... ;)

These are the enclosures in which the bears would have been, had they been on display.

In the 'Woodland Creatures' exhibit, there was a family of beavers who had just had a pair of kits. They were adorable, and their parents were friendly sorts.

They kept trying to swim through the glass to get to us. It looked like they were waving. They swam around quite a bit, then eventually got tired and wandered into their den, or onto the rocks next to their pond.

The Wolverines were, as expected, pretty surly. I got a number of pictures of the female agressively reminding the male that when she says 'Not tonight, dear, I have a headache', she means it. She chased him around the pen for a good 20 minutes until he hid under the trees.

All that fighting sure makes a girl thirsty.

The wolves were pretty tired. They barely even looked up when we were around. They were pretty far off, too, so I couldn't get a decent picture of them.

The raccoons were somewhat active. After their nap the first time we were through, they were wandering around their enclosure and getting a closer look at these strange animals that wander by their home. Kinda like those weird neighbors who'd sit in their driveway on lawn furniture watching everything.

There were a couple of badgers in an enclosure. They were very mellow and just kinda sat back and watched us watch them.

The paths through the enclosures were nicely wooded. Reminiscent of home.

The porcupine was being anti-social, so I only got one picture. All I saw was quills.