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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, and 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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 | | 25th Anniversary of 1988 Fires |
Around The Center
What's Happening at the GWDC
It's impossible to write September 11th on anything without automatically thinking of Patriot Day and all that goes along with this date. Our thoughts are with all who experienced tragedy firsthand and with our nation as a whole on this anniversary.
We marked another anniversary last week. Twenty-five years have passed since the 1988 fires, the most widespread fires in Yellowstone National Park's history. According to an article by Mike Koshmrl in last week's Jackson Hole News & Guide, the regeneration of the park's forests remains in its infancy. "The post-1988 forests are not recovered or more in balance, park ecologist Roy Rankin said. He doesn't like to use anthropomorphic terms like good, bad, devastated or recovered. Fire is simply part of the natural cycle. And today, slowly in some places and quickly in others, the forests are growing back in." The '88 blazes elevated the discussion about fire policy and educated the public about wildfire's role in fire-adapted ecosystems. Twenty-five years later signs of the fires, which affected 36 percent of the 2.2 million acre park, will persist for years, Rankin said. "That pattern will be evident on the landscape for, oh jeez, for a long time," he said. "We're at a point now where somebody can look at it and really not know what they're looking at, but that pattern will be evident for 200 years." You can read the entire article here. A truckload of hotshots currently fighting local and regional fires visited the Center last week. We were proud to host them. Our deepest thanks and respect to firefighters everywhere!
September is a busy month for community involvement in West Yellowstone. Trails Day? If you're in our neck of the woods, check out any or all of the following events. The West Yellowstone Foundation's "Happening" is September 14th, the Old Faithful Cycle Tour will be held on the 21st, the Yellowstone National Park's Fall Photo Festival will take place on Tuesday, September 24th, and the Pine Needle Stampede will challenge runners on Saturday the 28th. Then on Sunday the 29th, you can sign up to work on the Rendezvous Ski Trails to celebrate National Trails Day locally. Any volunteer who puts in a full day of eight hours of volunteer trail work will earn a free season pass for the upcoming winter season. Whew. At this pace, you'll be too tired to ski come winter!
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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 | Sow 101 in the early Autumn light
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Bears, Wolves, and Birds
(Oh My!)
Animal Updates
Our last fish delivery of the season arrived yesterday, along with the first frost of the season. The wolves are the most obvious beneficiaries, though the bears and birds will also receive live fish in their habitats. Wolf enrichment has changed with our new schedule; you can see wolf habitat enrichment at 11:30 and 6:15 daily. Just a reminder: we are now closing at 7:00 p.m. Beginning October 1st we will close at 6:00. Now that it is September, all bears are in a phase called hyperphagia. Hyperphagia is an instinctive period of excessive eating and drinking to fatten up for hibernation. During hyperphagia, a bear may increase its intake of food from 8,000 calories to 20,000 calories per day. Imagine way more than doubling your caloric consumption for up to three months! Can you say SUPERSIZE ME? Although the bears at the GWDC don't hibernate, they naturally enter hyperphagia when the days get shorter and nights grow colder. As their appetites increase, we will sometimes adjust the habitat schedule to make sure the bears have enough time and enough calories inside and out to keep up with their biological clocks. This is also the time of year when more bear-human conflicts take place as the need to eat pushes bears closer to communities and over-rides other instincts. Please secure all attractants and be sure to carry bear spray any time you are in bear country. The birds continue to thrive inside and out. Tegan is fun to find in his aviary. He seems to think he is completely camoflaged, even in plain sight. It does sometimes take an extra beat to see him amidst his habitat, but he's not as hard to find as he seems to think he is.
Stay tuned here and we'll keep you posted on the reason we're all here - the animals! Remember to check out our webcams when you're wondering what's going on around at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center 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. Read more about these Howls & Growls newsletters below, and please come visit us soon.
Check out our bears...
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 | | Acadia |
Education
Knowledge Is a Powerful Tool
The after-school program starts this week! Can you believe we've already gone from summer rec to after-school? It's hard to keep up around here. The Education team represented the Center with live birds in Big Sky last weekend, and the Raptor Fest is coming up in Bozeman in a little over three weeks. The sad news is the end of summer means goodbye to Ramona, and eventually to Madeline. We will miss your smiling faces, energetic answers to all sorts of questions, fabulous programs, and incredible knowledge. Speaking of knowledge, the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, in partnership with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), is offering a professional certification course for individuals who will be delivering interpretive programs or having public contact at interpretive sites. The Certified Interpretive Guide program (CIG) is designed for anyone who delivers interpretive programs to the public. It combines both the theoretical foundations of the profession with practical skills in delivering quality interpretive programming to visitors. Whether you are new to the interpretive field, or an experienced interpreter seeking professional recognition and a chance to hone your skills, this course is a great opportunity for you. The 32-hour course will take place Oct. 17-Oct. 20 at the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce. Cost with professional certification is $380 for non-NAI members, and $330 for NAI members. Participants can also elect to take the course without certification at a reduced rate. Advance registration for the course is required. Please contact Trent Redfield or AJ Chlebnik at education@grizzlydiscoveryctr.com or call 406-646-7001 for more information. You can also check out a full course description and find out more information on NAI and the CIG program on the web.
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.
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 | | Roosevelt and Grant in December 2011 |
Developments
New and Exciting Opportunities to Support the GWDC
Ok, so maybe it's not fair to throw this picture at you - if that tummy on Roosevelt doesn't melt you, we don't know what will. We are officially halfway to meeting our Summer Appeal goal of $50,000, to build a new den for Grant and Roosevelt! At the risk of sounding like your favorite NPR station ("YOU can make the difference to keep us on the air"), if you haven't responded to the Appeal yet, or if you didn't receive one in the mail but would like to help us build a new home so the cubs can thrive in separate dens, please donate today. You can contribute securely online by clicking here and writing Bear Den or something along those lines in the Project line. This photo was taken the day after Christmas two years ago, when the cubs were truly still cubs. Does knowing you can't resist this shot make it just a little underhanded to use here? We hope not. We're going for temptation, not coercion. Thanks so much to all of you for your continued support.
As a token of thanks and another way to keep you informed and connected, we've got another issue of our Howls & Growls newsletter coming from the printer and going out in the mail later this week. Literally hot off the presses, we send this piece to current members, adopters, and folks who have donated $40 and over in the last six months - year. If you're not on the mailing list, simply click the link above to donate or join the Center, or email jenniferh@grizzlydiscoveryctr.com for a sample copy. We'd love to keep you in the loop.
Finally this week, the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is pleased to announce our 2nd Annual Autumn Discovery Photography Contest for amateur and professional photographers! The contest will run from September 1st - October 31st, so start planning your fall visit now.
Amateur and professional photographers may submit up to six works in digital format for consideration. The photographs must be taken here at the GWDC of the bears, wolves, and raptors in September or October of this year and available for Center use with photo credit. Extreme photo alteration will not be considered. Deadline for submission is November 1st. Six winners will be announced and awarded in the following categories: Amateur Bear, Amateur Wolf, and Amateur Raptor photograph, and Professional Bear, Professional Wolf, and Professional Raptor photograph. The winning photographs will be featured in both print and digital format in future newsletters, marketing and fundraising materials, and social media, like right here in email newsletters. For more information, call the Center or reply to this newsletter.
Your support makes a world of difference to the animals here at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. We hope to hear from you and see you soon.
Keep reading about other ways to support the GWDC...
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 | | Nahani |
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 Pam Talasco, Trent Redfield, Gretchen Heine, Angie Neilsen 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 summer, and we'll look forward to seeing you soon.
Remember your next Howls & Growls is coming soon with an interesting article about identifying individual howls of wolves. You can add your name to the mailing list (see above) if you're not already on it. Thanks again for keeping up with us and for all you do.
Sincerely,
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 | Come visit soon!
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The GWDC Staff
Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center |
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