Hope this finds you feeling festive. This time of year can be one of the happiest and most exciting, busy with family, friends, and events. The Center staff just got together last Tuesday evening to celebrate a wonderful year together, to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to meet and greet each other's families and exchange white elephant gifts, and to pause and enjoy the season and the work we do. We wish you could have been there. This can also be a stressful and exhausting time of year, sad for some and tough for others. We hope your holiday season is peaceful, safe, and joyful. 

Our very own Karelian Bear Dog made front page news last week in our hometown! The West Yellowstone News featured the Center and the work of our newest member, 1-year-old Nakiska, in an interesting article you can read here. Nakiska came to us from the Wind River Bear Institute, and will be a great tool to teach visitors how to deal with bears that are habituated to human food and are endangering people by entering populated areas. WRBI works specifically with Karelian bear dogs, and is responsible for developing a technique called bear shepherding. This technique is used to reduce conflicts between humans and bears, and subsequently reduce human-caused bear mortalities. 

We got a message last week from Sandy Friedman, who had all sorts of nice things to say along with her brilliant suggestion: please name the animals in your email newsletter. Would it be inelegant to say we had a "duh" moment? Our apologies for not doing this all along, and our thanks to Sandy for bringing it to our attention. Please keep the feedback coming, and if you like what you see, pass it on to a friend. If you're really feeling pressured to do some last-minute shopping, maybe you could forward this email and call it a gift! Sure, we're stretching it a bit, but maybe throw in an animal adoption or membership, and you're in business! Think about it.

A few corrections from the last email newsletter issue: In the last section, we listed Christmas Stocking raffle tickets at $65. Sorry if we caused a grey hair or a heart palpitation. $5 only folks - just a typo. And an apology to the people on our monthly mailing list: we sent you an extra issue. Sorry for filling your Inbox on the wrong week! We will do better.

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

Yes, more great news about the animals this issue. Good news never gets old.

Christmas for the Critters is officially underway! What IS Christmas for the Critters, you ask? Well, every year we set up collection bins in the Gift Shop and collect all sorts of goodies for the bears and wolves. Help make the holidays more joyful by donating spices and extracts, peanut butter, unsalted nuts, jams, and especially raisins and other dried fruits, for the enrichment of the bears and wolves. Want to REALLY make a Critter's Christmas? Bring in an extra-large Kong toy. Bring in your donation and we will give you $1.25 off a regular adult admission, 10% off any gift shop purchase and tons of gratitude! To ensure the safety of the animals please bring only unopened items. This is a great time of year to give something special to the animals.  

 

The bears are rolling and playing in the snow, and the wolves are partaking in large enrichment items weekly, like elk rib cages and leg bones. All birds are now off-exhibit.  

 

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 terrific as we are, so we'll keep you posted on the reason we're all here: the bears, wolves, and birds.

 

Today at the After School Program the kids learned about snowflakes and made snowflakes to send to Sandy Hook Elementary. The snowflakes will be hung in the school to make it into a "Winter Wonderland" when the students return after the holidays. One small way to give back in the wake of this tragedy.

 

Jennifer Lemmond, a former education staff member, recently got hired by the Virginia Zoo! She'll be working as part of their education department heading up family programs and the junior docent program. We are very happy for her (though we miss her very much)!

Emily, one of our most fantastic volunteers, spent a few days with us recently. We look forward to seeing her again soon. Thanks for your time and energy!

If you're interested in visiting the GWDC with your students, 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, some of 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

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

 

 

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! Paintings, sculptures, and mixed media are welcome too.

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.

We are truly thankful for you this season. Have a wonderful and peaceful holiday season!

 

 

The GWDC Staff