What's Happening at the GWDC

The snow has started to fall here in West Yellowstone, but strangely, no one has been out to photograph it. Sure, visitors have been smitten with the views of animals amidst backdrops of white, but the GWDC staff has been too busy preparing for winter to stop and take pictures of it. Sunday marked the change of our winter entrance and admissions location from the museum building to the gift shop. That means visitors are now coming and going through the gift shop doors, leaving the museum building a little quieter (except for the steam cleaner we've been running on the carpet - another mark of the changing seasons). We still have a steady stream of visitors, school groups, and other guests, but there is definitely a feeling in the air that now is the time to get ready for winter. Outdoor displays are being wheeled in, the museum furnace has been repaired, and starting next Sunday we will close at 4:00 daily.

 
We have great news on a couple fronts this week. First, we want to thank the Cross Charitable Foundation for a generous donation that will allow us to dig the foundation and begin framing our new Bear Kitchen. This free-standing building will house a food preparation kitchen for the bears, a vehicle maintenance shop, and other work and learning space for the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. With the few weeks we have left before the ground is frozen and the weather less than conducive to construction, we hope to have enough structure built and weatherized so interior work can continue through the coming months. Thank you, Cross Charitable Foundation, for your support!
Second, big thanks go to all of you who have visited the GWDC and rated us on TripAdvisor! We have been recognized for exceptional traveler ratings over the past year. With a rating of 4.5, we have earned a place among the best businesses in TripAdvisor's community, and we have you to thank. We are proud of our staff, our facility, and our commitment to providing visitors to the Yellowstone area an opportunity to observe, understand, and appreciate grizzly bears, gray wolves, and birds-of-prey. Don't just take TripAdvisor's word for it though; come see us and the animals we care for yourself!

And finally, we are getting two additional birds-of-prey! We've been holding our breath and holding on to our hats for weeks now, trying not to spoil the surprise while the permits and paperwork were sorted out. The details are just below in the next section, but we're so excited we couldn't wait another minute to tell you our good news.

 Read more about the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center...

Photo by Bill Powers

So what's this about two new birds??! It's true. We've been waiting and wanting to tell you about two Bald Eagles that will be joining us here at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in the next week or two! Both are non-releasable due to wing injuries, and they are coming to us from the AZA-accredited Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota. Rest assured, we will share their pictures and stories as well as their names once they are here and settling in. We hope you'll get a chance to meet them next summer!

We expect the birds in the Aviary to come off exhibit sometime in the next ten days to two weeks, depending on the weather.

The GWDC wolves made the cover of Scholastic Magazine a few weeks ago! Well, not all of them, but the September 17th Issue of the highly regarded classroom reading supplement featured a study co-hosted by the GWDC that used infrared technology to study mange in gray wolves. Color-coded photographs helped researchers study how the presence of sarcoptic mange affects the behavior and survival of wolves in the Yellowstone area. Paul Cross of the US Geological Survey was the lead on this research project, and he said it best when he shared the published article with us: "Nice to play a role in getting new science in the classroom. Cheers!"

Our bears have made the news recently as well. The Billings Gazette published a great story October 13th about the bear-resistant container testing program here at the GWDC. Even the nervous designer and fabricator of the recycling bins being tested was complimentary. According to Mick Thompson of Back Alley Metals in Red Lodge, Montana, the Center is a "really cool place." We thought it was a really cool article by Brett French. You can read it here.

Every issue of our email newsletter will have updates on our animals, and we will still be sending quarterly newsletters through the mail. We know it's not the people who draw you to the GWDC, as neat as we are, so we'll keep you posted on the reason we're all here: the bears, wolves, and birds.

Our Education team has been busy, both here and away from the Center. Congratulations to Madeline, who got married last Friday! And all our best to Jennifer Lemmond, who will be going home to warmer places at the end of the month. They have completely reorganized the education workroom, continued to greet visitors, and now that the IMAX theater is closed for the remainder of the year, they have ramped up movie presentations.

If you haven't seen our theater, you've missed a great place. It's located in our museum building, and open every day of the year. We have 8 different wildlife movies that are between 20 minutes to an hour long. Need a quiet spot to sit? A giant screen to behold? A place to spread out and learn about bears, wolves, or the Yellowstone area? We've got you covered. When you visit us to see the grizzlies and wolves just ask about viewing any of the following titles and we will gladly start them for you in the theater:

Living in Bear Country (22 minutes)
The Biggest Bears (20 minutes)
Clash: Encounters of Bears and Wolves (60 minutes)
Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators (60 minutes)
National Geographic Wolves: A Legend Returns to Yellowstone (60 minutes)
Wolf Pack (60 minutes)
PBS Yellowstone: America's Sacred Wilderness (60 minutes), and
Staying Safe in Bear Country (30 minutes). 

 

The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is continuing to develop a partnership with the West Yellowstone school, in an effort to provide internships and volunteer hours to high school students. The After-School enrichment program has been meeting with Center staff every Wednesday, doing all sorts of outdoor and indoor science and environmental education projects and experiments. They're studying polymers right now. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Remember, if you have an old (but still loveable) backpack that would fit a school-aged child, please think about donating it to us for student hikes and programs.

If you're interested in visiting the GWDC with your classroom, or if you'd like to sponsor a Teaching Trunk or outreach program, let us know. One of the Center's naturalists can visit your school for special assemblies, programs or activities. As you know, our birds-of-prey can travel for such programs as can our large collection of wolf and bear artifacts. We will customize the program or the Teaching Trunk for your group and areas of special interest.

Learn more about the GWDC Education programs... 

Developments

New and Exciting Opportunities to Support the GWDC

Thanks again for all you do. We look forward to hearing from you soon! 

 

 

Photographs and Artwork from the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center

Photo by Randy and Jean Bjerke

We are honored to have many artists and photographers visit and support the GWDC. Their vision and talents inspire and enliven our work here, so we thought it would be nice to feature some of their work in every issue of our newsletter. If you'd like to see your artwork here, send us an image!

"Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." Kurt Vonnegut

Follow us and see more great photos on Facebook... 

We hope you enjoyed this issue, learned a little something, and felt like you were here with us for just a few minutes. It's a pretty special place to be. We hope you have a great couple of weeks, and make plans to come see us soon. Thank you!

 

 

Photo by Jennifer Lemmond

The GWDC Staff