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May 8, 2013
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DISCOVERY
News from The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center
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Hello and welcome!
Thanks for dropping in to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, a not-for-profit, AZA-accredited wildlife park and educational facility, with a diverse crew of staff and volunteers. We're glad you're here with us, and we hope to see you in person soon.
As usual, there's a lot going on in this issue. Enjoy the photos and the news. Get to know our amazing cast of characters, and share us with your friends. Please come visit us, right here in West Yellowstone, relax and watch the animals, or participate in one of our interactive programs and displays. Until then we wish you all the best. We hope we can bring a little discovery and excitement your way. See you soon!
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Around The Center
What's Happening at the GWDC
If the theme of our last email newsletter was short and sweet, this one has to be chock full o' news. Perhaps the sunshine has made us a little corny. The bears and wolves have been especially playful over the last few days, if that's any indication of how silly we're all feeling now that it finally seems like spring. To seal the deal, we saw our first visitors in shorts yesterday! Though you may have already been mowing your lawn for weeks, we are finally celebrating the fact that the snow is melting and winter is over! (Famous last words.)
So besides a cheerful weather report, what can we tell you? May is Be Bear Aware & Wildlife Stewardship Month! Spring is the time when bears and cubs emerge from their winter dens, kids once again start exploring our great outdoors, and families begin making their summer plans to travel to our parks, forests, and refuges. May is the time to remind Americans how to enjoy our wildlife, especially bears, safely and responsibly.
Speaking of stewardship, we thought you might be interested in learning more about the UnCommon Sense program, which our Facilities Manager Randy Gravatt has brought to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. This program equips businesses to make desired changes in their operations and empowers them to become sustainability leaders in their communities and industry sectors. We are proud to be part of this effort.
To graduate from UnCommon Sense, each business is required to complete assignments from eight modules and prepare a final presentation and written report that summarizes their actions and operational improvements. Businesses achieve points for completing these action items, and a minimum number of points is required to graduate. Examples of the action items include conducting waste stream audits and measuring waste stream, baseline energy and water audits and use tracking, calculating CAFÉ measures and conducting a greenhouse gas inventory. UnCommon Sense integrates education and peer-support by requiring businesses to attend five group workshops over a two-year period and participate in monthly teleconferences. Each training module explains how to conduct self audits, make operational improvements and measure and communicate results. For a video overview of the program, check out this Uncommon Sense Vimeo link.
Endangered Species Day is coming up quickly. Started by the United States Senate, Endangered Species Day is the third Friday in May every year, or May 17th, 2013. Thousands of people throughout the country celebrate Endangered Species Day at parks, wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, libraries, schools and community centers. Festivals, field trips, park tours, community clean-ups, film showings, classroom presentations, and many other fun and educational activities take place throughout the country. Schools, scout troops and other educational institutions are encouraged to learn about our nation's wildlife, birds, fish and plants on the brink of extinction. For more information and for lesson plans and other educational materials visit www.EndangeredSpeciesDay.org.
By the way, to make up for the length of this newsletter, or to make it even longer depending on your perspective, we've added lots of images and graphics to this issue. Hope you enjoy!
Remember if you have any questions, or just want to know more about any aspect of the Center, you can always give us a call at 406.646.7001, reply to this newsletter, or email
info@grizzlydiscoveryctr.com. We will try to keep you informed and up to date in as many ways as we can. Your involvement and interest in what we do keeps us doing it! We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Thanks again for tuning in.
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Bears, Wolves, and Birds
(Oh My!)
Animal Updates
Sow 101 is 31 years old. She has quite a history, and if her heart-shaped face and soulful eyes could speak English, hers would be a story worth telling. We look to bears' behaviors to do the talking, and this week 101 finally played in earnest with Roosevelt. After years of living at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center and months of advances by younger bears trying to engage her in play, 101 finally buckled. For a few minutes last Thursday, and then for more than half an hour last Friday, 101 and Roosevelt rolled, tumbled, pawed, splashed, growled and tussled. Don't think less of us, but several staff members were caught with tears in their eyes. While it's hard to explain the new lease on life this behavior seems to represent, and the powerful impact it has on us when the animals we love thrive, maybe it's not so hard to understand.
The wolves are also showing playful behavior. They have been howling frequently as well, which makes for great viewing and great listening. Howling is only one of the vocalizations wolves make, but it is a vitally important part of their pack dynamics. We hope you can visit and hear them for yourself soon. It's tempting to join in and howl along with them, but we do ask that you only listen. If you can't be here in person, remember you can watch our wolf cam any time.
The raptors will be heading outside soon (proof positive that winter is over). We will introduce the bald eagles Zack and Josh to their new enclosure tomorrow! Until they acclimate to their new surroundings, the path will remain closed.
Stay tuned here and we'll keep you posted on the reason we're all here: the bears, wolves, birds, and our bear dog Nakiska, who will be participating in our summer programs! Remember to check out our webcams when you're wondering what's going on around here or wanting to stay connected until your next visit. Every issue of our email newsletter will have updates on our animals, and we will still be sending quarterly newsletters through the mail. Our next Howls & Growls newsletter will be sent out in June. If you want to be added to our H&G mailing list, give us a call. We'd love to greet you and tell you how to join up.
Check out our bears...
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Education
Knowledge Is a Powerful Tool
International Migratory Bird Day is Saturday, May 18th. This year, the annual celebration, co-sponsored by the National Park Service and the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, will feature a Ranger-led birdwatching car caravan along the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park. (Meet at the picnic area at Madison Junction at 8 a.m. and return to town around noon. Park entrance fee required.) In the afternoon, festivities will continue here at the Center with the following schedule:
1 p.m. Live raptor program 2 p.m. Talk at the outdoor aviary 3 p.m. Birds of Yellowstone - Katy Duffy, National Park Service 4 p.m. Live raptor program Please join us for this exciting and educational day. In the last issue we told you about our Earth Day celebration here in West Yellowstone. It was a huge success and a lot of fun. One of the big hits of the weekend was the unveiling of decorative vinyl wraps made from local artwork to cover bear-safe trash cans and recycling bins throughout town. The GWDC is well-represented on these wraps with photos of animals at the Center taken by Pam Talasco, and wildlife art painted by our own staff member Juliann Steiner. Children's art and other photographs adorn wraps as well.   To read more about Earth Day in West Yellowstone and the tremendous contribution of our Education staff to the events, click here. If you're interested in visiting the GWDC with your family or 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. Special thanks to Kelly at Alum Bridge Elementary for your recent additions to our library!
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Developments
New and Exciting Opportunities to Support the GWDC
Remember. Long and chock full o' news. And delightful graphics to spice things up...
Our Winter Raffle winner was finally chosen on May 1st - another sure sign that winter is over! We blindly selected the winning ticket from all our generous participants, and we are thrilled to announce that the framed print of Carl Brender's lifelike painting of a mountain lion family went to Liz in Millville, Utah. Thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets. We will announce our next raffle soon.
We have a new and exciting Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Calendar hot off the press! This 13-month calendar runs from January 2014 - January 2015 and features the GWDC animals, traditional holidays, phases of the moon, and plenty of room to write in special dates and events of your own. If you're anything like the members of the Development crew, you're already looking for a place to write down next year's occasions. For only $12, it's a great way to stay organized and think of us often. It would make a great gift too, if we do say so ourselves. Call or email us to order calendars today.
And now a question: Have you ever engaged in crowd-funding? If you've ever hosted or participated in an online fund-raising platform such as Crowdrise, Crowdtilt, Razoo, or Fundraise.com, what did you think? Was it fun? How did you get involved? We have a small and compelling project coming up, and we're tossing around this idea of using technology and social networks to make things interesting. If you have any ideas or opinions, let us know. Reply to this newsletter, email jenniferh@grizzlydiscoveryctr.com, or post your answers on Facebook. Your input would be really helpful. Thanks!
Next issue: an amazing piece by a local student film-maker and friend of the GWDC, our summer raffle pieces, and a hint about our upcoming projects. Stay tuned!
We are grateful that you are involved with the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.
Thanks again for all you do. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Keep reading about other ways to support the GWDC...
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Eye Candy
Photographs and Artwork from the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center
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.
Our thanks to Kristin Garland, Shanna Arneson, and Kimberly Shields for this week's photographs.
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We hope you enjoy this issue, learn a little something, and feel like you are here with us for just a few minutes. It's a pretty special place to be. Have a great couple of weeks and a fantastic spring, and we'll look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks again for all you do.
Sincerely,
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The GWDC Staff
Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center |
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Gift Shop
Happenings
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Greetings from the Gift Shop!
We are excited to welcome John Fry to the Admissions/Gift shop crew. It's shaping up to be a terrific summer. We have new faces, new books, and new gift and souvenir items in store for you. (No pun intended.) Call or email us for all the latest.
Thank you for supporting and shopping at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center!
| For a limited time, receive FREE SHIPPING when you order a 2014 GWDC Calendar!
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