Extension > WSU Bear Center > Photos & Videos

Photos & Videos

Photos

  • Bear in a cage.
  • Bear laying in grass.
  • Two bears playing in a tub of water.
  • Two small bears playing in a tub of water.
  • Bear carrying a salmon in its mouth.
  • Female grizzlies watch as one digs a den in the yard.
  • someone squatting in a bear den under the ground.
  • Bear den in the ground.
  • Bear coming out of a den.
  • Mama bear standing next to her cubs.
  • Mama bear standing next to her cub.
  • Three bears basking in the sun in the outdoor enclosure.
  • Brandon Evans Hutzenbiler.
  • Bear playing.
  • Bear standing on its hind legs.
  • A bear sitting on its hind end waving its paw.
  • A bear sitting on its hind end stretching its back leg with front paws.
  • Clicker training grizzly bear with honey water
  • Bear eating inside of watermelon.
  • Cub bear sitting in water barrel.
  • Bear walking on grass.
  • Dodge and Zuri, grizzly bear siblings, playing in the pool.
  • Bear walking in field.
  • Close-up of bear face.
  • Bear chewing on fish in pool.
  • Bear laying down in grass.
  • Bears coming out den.
  • Bear laying in grass.
  • Bears walking around in field.
  • John grizzly bear standing and eating guacamole off of enrichment item.
  • Bear cub laying on floor.
  • Kio grizzly bear in yard.
  • Oakley standing on tub to reach enrichment item.
  • Bear walking around in grass.
  • Zuri bear lying in yard on her belly.
  • Oakley standing in den she is digging as Cooke watches.
  • Grizzly bear cooling down in water.
  • Bear sitting in pool.
  • Bear playing with a toy.
  • Bear Center volunteer Claire giving Willow bear a treat.
  • Dr. Charles feeding cub.
  • Three researchers working on a drugged polar bear in a snowy field with a helicopter in the background.
  • Woman doing a checkup on bear.
  • Nina Woodford in a grassy field with two bear cubs.
  • Bear playing with a box.
  • Bear cub on a log.
  • Lynn Nelson and student Jen Fortin standing with bear in yard.
  • A bear cub relaxing in the grass.
  • Bear cub.
  • Grizzly is walking on grass.

Videos

Polar Bear Energetics

How does the changing sea ice and increased time on land affect polar bears’ energetics? We find out by tracking polar bears and watching their movements with collar cameras.

Grizzly Bear Energetics

Find out how WSU researchers trained grizzly bears to walk on a treadmill so they could measure energy expenditure, and then how the researchers applied that knowledge to understanding movements of wild bears. The study can be found here.

Winter’s Rest: Grizzly Bear Hibernation at WSU

Find out how and why the grizzly bears at WSU hibernate.

How to Get Blood from a Grizzly Bear and Remain Safe

Drawing blood from captive bears is important in monitoring their health and in providing biological material for numerous research projects. To minimize stress on captive bears, WSU Bear Center personnel demonstrate how they have been able to do this by working with the bears.

October Enrichment!

Grizzly bears are very curious and highly motivated! Watch our WSU bears enjoy themselves in a few various enrichment activities throughout the active season.

Den Digging

As the days shorten and get colder during the months of September and October, you can tell winter is on the way- and so can the WSU bears. It’s not unusual to see some of our bears, especially those that came to our facility from the Yellowstone Ecosystem, begin to exhibit behaviors indicative of hibernation preparation. Often during this time of the year appetites will dwindle and individuals will gather and drag debris like grass and bark inside their permanent den areas signaling their desire to make a cozy bed. Our more industrious residents will take it upon themselves to start constructing their own den out in the exercise yard.

Seen in the video is Oakley, an 18 year old female, making good progress in late October on a den initially started by two of our adult males about a week prior to hibernation officially beginning. The other adult females appear to be content to watch her work. While it is very impressive to observe the bears dig, ultimately annual hibernation occurs inside their structurally sound and camera-equipped artificial dens, located inside the Bear Center facility.

May Enrichment in the Yard

Adak, Dodge, Willow and Adak, our four, 4.5year old bears, enjoy a summer afternoon in the yard eagerly seeking out their enrichment items. Each day the bears are provided various form of enrichment including puzzle feeders incorporating plastic balls, PVC, fire hose and chain as well as food items hidden throughout the yard area.

Foot Training for Grizzly Bears at WSU

Wow, it Bearly took any effort! Seen here are two of our four “wild” bears, who can claim Yellowstone as their first home, receiving rewards for voluntary blood draw training. Frank, John, Cooke and Oakley are two male and two female 17 year old adult grizzly bears that reside at the WSU Bear Center. Until the Spring of 2019, they had received minimal training for these types of activities. Within one month of focusing on gaining their trust and understanding, all four of these individuals had quickly picked up the concept, quickly responding to our clicker training and food rewards. Our group was amazed at how perceptive the bears were and the degree of patience they exhibited to work with us and through our mistakes to achieve this impressive feat.

Bear Conservation and Research at Washington State University

Joy Erlenbach, a PhD student at the WSU Bear Center, discusses the many facets of her research as well as her extensive experience collecting data on bears in Alaska. She also shares her experiences getting her PhD at WSU, including the intimate bonds she has formed over the years with our bears here in Pullman.

Iso-Seq project

Watch Iso-Seq Video

Meet the WSU researchers who study the bears, as they provide a brief overview of their involvement with the Bear Center and their research focus.

Changing Tides: Bear Observations

Graduate student Joy Erlenbach discusses the bear observation portion of the Changing Tides Project, a research project examining the interconnections between intertidal invertebrates, bears, and humans in Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks and Preserves.

Key to Human Heart Disease Could Lie with Hibernating Grizzly Bears

Washington State University’s Bear Center is currently looking at hibernation and how a bear can survive with a very low heart rate for an extended period of time.