At first glance, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (KHMR) may look very similar to other ski hills around British Columbia. They offer mountain biking, a gondola up to the peak of the mountain for picturesque views and trails to explore, as well as a restaurant where you can dine at 7,700 feet. However, we have one very unique feature at our local ski resort that few others can boast: a Grizzly Bear Refuge.
Approximately halfway up the mountain at KHMR you’ll find a 20-acre mountainside habitat, the Grizzly Bear Refuge. Its resident grizzly bear, Boo, has lived there for almost his entire life after being orphaned back in the summer of 2002. If you aren’t familiar with his story, Boo originally came to the Columbia Valley with his brother Cari, named after the Cariboo Mountains in central British Columbia where they were born, after being orphaned. Unfortunately, Cari passed away during their first winter at KHMR, which left Boo.
Upon arriving at the base of KHMR, I was able to meet up with Cat, the manager of the Grizzly Bear Refuge. She’s worked alongside Boo for eight years now, and we had a chat about the ecosystem that makes up the grizzly bear refuge, Boo’s social habits, and a bit about bears in general.
Chatting with the Grizzly Bear Refuge Manager
“One day, I’d like to see another bear join the refuge; Boo could really benefit from it, we could benefit from it, the ecosystem could benefit from it. That’s the biggest thing I’ve seen over the years, this is a contained area and it’s not like you have large animals moving through here all of the time. Things get in from time to time that are bigger but that’s what you get when you have a massive enclosure on the side of a mountain, we’re right in a wildlife corridor here. For how the habitat is thriving, it’s super overgrown, it’s super dense in there. When you have an animal that adds to the nutrients and to the soil, he’s constantly giving back to the ecosystem and aerating it and digging, but he can’t eat enough, he can’t trample things down enough. We’re constantly in there, trying to trim things back, trying to play that role to help keep things from being overgrown.
Grizzly Bear Refuge Maintenance
Getting Boo moving around the habitat more is something we’re constantly doing. He does on his own a lot, especially as we’ve been able to open up and clear things in the enclosure. There was some in our north forest last year, we had our tree faller guy on the mountain come and cut some stuff down in the habitat. He went in there and found all of these old trails and day beds that were really small, Boo could only use them when he was younger and then it got too overgrown and he stopped using them. Once they opened it all up, Boo has been exploring this whole new section of his habitat having a great time. He’s been coming out of the north forest, just covered in dirt, rediscovering this area that he hasn’t been able to access. It’s a lot of ecosystem management, which is a lot of work, but it is very rewarding.
We used to have a totally different setup. This fence was built completely differently, it was a whole other setup. They had to take it down every winter and now this is a permanent full set-up fence. It’s got your full dig guards in the ground that go down 4 feet, metal plates, and concrete blocks. The one time I saw him dig along the fence line, it was my first year and it was June, and I had always heard this was the time we’d get on edge. He just starts picking up the earth, right at the fence line, and I start thinking about all of my protocols. Sure enough, he got a ground squirrel and he went on his way. I’ve seen him investigate things, but he is super content, which is really rewarding to see, just how happy he is.
We’ve pioneered so many different ways of how to maintain a large enclosure. There’s nothing like this on the planet, there’s large enclosures, but when it comes to the side of a mountain with multi-ecosystems with so much going on in it right in the middle of a wildlife corridor, that’s a whole other dynamic, it’s wild. There’s always something happening, there’s always something to fix, and it’s a lot of work but seeing his quality of life too is wicked. If I were to go anywhere else I don’t know how I would replace this, it’s pretty cool, I am always very proud of it.
Bear Habits
Bears didn’t evolve like we did in terms of social groups. Look at us, look at wolves, look at any type of pack or herd. Bears don’t typically have that social dynamic, but we see it in glimpses. Maybe it is because they’re so adaptable compared to a lot of other animals, it’s like “if they can, they will”. Boo clues in so quickly, so like with first-year guides he’s a bit more standoffish because he’s seen so many people come and go that look after him over the years. For those of us who have been around for a while, he understands that those are his go-to’s. Working with him in that dynamic is so rewarding, but he does look to you for socialization, like going for walks around the enclosure.
Hanging out with Boo at the Grizzly Bear Refuge
A big thing was running with us. It’s all body language, so he would paw the fence line and kind of move forward, he’d get this cheeky happy look on his face, he’d chuff a little bit, then he’d look back at you and back up a bit and then do it all again. We figured out that that was him asking to play. One day, one of the guides, she started taking a couple of steps, and he started running, and they started running back and forth down the fence line together. He was around 13 or 14 when we started looking into this behaviour. It’s that want of social connection, a connection with their people. Boo will see one of us walk around the enclosure, doing a perimeter check, and he wants to go with us. Sometimes he just wants to sit and smell you and just sit with you and have company. Working with him, as he gets older, I’ve been doing more training with him on checking his teeth and more voluntary health checks with him. Instead of having to sedate him every time something is wrong, I can ask him; “hey, can I see your paw”, “hey, can I check your back teeth”, “hey, can I get you on that weigh scale”, and he loves it. He loves the social dynamic, he loves thinking, he loves learning new things, you can really see the wheels turning to the point where he doesn’t even care about the food, he just wants to do this.
One thing I was happy to see when I came here was realizing that people can’t walk around the whole enclosure. So if he doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t have to be. We don’t disperse food just in this area [along the fence line], we disperse it all over, and he has tons of natural food sources everywhere. So it is really him just wanting to be here, he’s curious about people. Mid-day he’ll go and do something else, but he has his routines, he’s happy to hang out and see what everybody is doing. We have our two months where we’re open seven days a week, he gets his fill of seeing people, and then that’s it. That’s pretty ideal for this kind of set up, where he’s not constantly being hounded by people all of the time, he has some solid breaks in there, and I think that’s important for them.
Learning about bears
There’s a lot of information out there, they’re one of the most studied animals on the planet. You find all of the different bear species around the planet, you find them from deserts to the Arctic Circle to rainforests to mountains. They’re one of the most widespread species on the planet, and brown bears are one of the most widespread themselves.
The reason why we find all of these species of bears across the planet is because they’re so adaptable. We see that in cities and towns, where we have to continue to use different management tools in order to keep them alive, because they will adapt to certain things far too easily. There’s a fine line between adapting to the landscape and becoming habituated to it.
It’s a bit of a battle, with infrastructure and development and people, whilst trying to maintain our wild spaces. That’s something we’re trying to focus on, with something like this, where people can come out and see a bear in its natural setting, but not impact its livelihood and general well-being.”
Bear Awareness Days at the Grizzly Bear Refuge
On the weekend of July 6th and 7th, the Grizzly Bear Refuge team hosted Bear Awareness Days, which featured demonstrations and guest speakers to educate people about being bear-aware while out in the wilderness.
Visiting the Grizzly Bear Refuge
The Grizzly Bear Refuge offers interpretive tours every hour on the hour, seven days a week, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The first tour of the day, at 10:00 a.m., is the recommended time to see Boo, whereas there is no tour at 1:00 p.m. because he’s usually out of sight during his afternoon nap. Visit the KHMR website to learn more and find ticket pricing.
