Cute animal alert! The city of Bern plans to open the BearPark by fall of 2009, and it will be stocked with critters of the vivacious--not stuffed--variety.
The attraction will be an expansion of the existing Bear Pit, where Pedro and Tana, two brown bears, currently live. The new park will offer more terrain for the animals including three caves and a swimming pool. It will also give the bears a bit more privacy than they currently enjoy.
Though the new park will be quite posh, it'll still be free to check in on Pedro and Tana, as bears are a part of Bern's cultural heritage: Legend has it that the city takes its name from the first animal killed when the area was settled in the 12th century.
Stephen Colbert was right! Two campgrounds near Yellowstone National Park have been closed at the height of tourist season after a bear attacked a camper Thursday morning.
The bear, believed to be a grizzly, entered a tent at the Soda Butte campground at the park's northeastern end and bit and scratched a man. It is not known whether he was camping alone or how old he was, but it appeared his food was stored correctly (a common draw to hungry animals in and near the park).
The National Park Service said the bear returned to the scene of the crime later on Thursday, proving that bears are not actually that smart.
Although Anchorage is a somewhat bustling city of 300,000 people, skyscrapers, great nightlife and one of the best bars in America (Chilkoot Charlie's), it still remains on the edge of some truly wild territory filled with animals much larger, tootheir and hungrier than humans.
This fact was sadly reiterated on Saturday night when a teenage girl riding in an all-night bike race was mauled by a bear who was foraging near the course in Far North Bicentennial Park. The young girl was outfitted with bear bells and two lights so as not to scare any wildlife, but a state biologist says that gusty winds on the night of the race and the rush of the creek might have made it difficult for the bear to hear her approach. That, he said, might've spooked the animal and caused the attack.
Two weekends prior, a bear charged at a pair of runners in the same area--though that's not stopping Alaskans from getting out to enjoy nature. Says one local:
It's not going to stop me from going out of the house and enjoying the short summer. But I'm thinking we should buy some bear spray.
It's definitely bear season in the northern hemisphere. Over at HotelChatter they've been spotting bears taking dips in hotel swimming pools in Orlando and Colorado. But in Romania, bears are going beyond cooling off in the pool.
In Sinaia, a whole family of bears recently ambled into a restaurant and, well, sat down at the tables. When they didn't get any service--everyone fled the restaurant--the brown bear and two cubs found the kitchen and ate their fill.
Police and rangers were called out, but the bears had gone before they arrived. They didn't even leave a tip.
So checking out the wildlife at your local ski resort doesn't do it for you? That's where Great Bear Tours comes in.
The swanky outfit has its own floating wind-and-solar-powered lodge, which you can only reach via seaplane. On arrival, you'll be whisked away to your room--surprisingly complete with private bath. Depending on how much you want to see and how much you have to spend, you can stay for up to seven nights.
Each day you'll head out in a small group with a wildlife expert. You'll check out estuaries by kayak and inlets by boat, all in search of Yogi and friends. Best of all, when you return each night you'll be pampered with fine food and wine--no "pick-a-nick" basket meals here.
You have to get in touch for pricing info so you can bet your trip won't be cheap. But isn't it worth paying those professionals a little extra when wild animals are within striking distance? Better start listing your teddy bears on eBay now to fund your adventure.
We love that scene in "The Great Outdoors" when John Candy takes the kids to the dump to watch the bears feed off garbage. Things start getting a little out hand after the bears mount the hood of their car, remember? Funny, sure, but it's not necessarily the way we'd go about bear watching. Luckily the folks at Whistler/Blackcomb resort have come up with a better way to do some wildlife spotting.
Bear expert Michael Allen has been studying the animals in British Columbia for the last 15 years. His work with bears has been internationally recognized, and he's the host of the BBC's Natural World program "In the Company of Bears." For $190, Mike will take you out at sunset--in a 4x4 and on foot--to see bears in their natural habitat without having to worry about being disemboweled or otherwise maimed.
You'll drive and walk through old growth Hemlock forests and high-alpine meadows to see bear dens, bear daybeds and--if you're lucky--a mother and cub playing together. Something this precious is usually only reserved for the fronts of Hallmark sympathy cards, so steel your nerves to fend off the tears.
We've been trying to let poor ol' Bruno the Bear rest in peace since he was killed in Bavaria after famously being the first wild bear to enter Germany since 1836.
But we just have to mention that Bruno the Bear has finally become a permanent part of the tourist landscape in Germany. As promised, a well-stuffed Bruno is now on display in the Museum of Man and Nature inside the Nymphenburg Palace near Munich. The realistic-looking diorama opened last Thursday and the nice thing is you can get into the museum for just €2.50 ($4).
And while we're pleased that Bruno can take a rest now, we don't want you to forget that if you're traveling through western Austria this summer, you might catch some of the location shoot for the movie based on Bruno's story. If you think we're champing at the bit to visit Bruno in the museum, just imagine how much we're dying to see this film.
We can't explain our addiction to the Bruno the Bear story last summer, when brown bear Bruno led a media circus through southern Germany before he was shot dead. He's now ready to stand proud in a Munich museum.
The weird thing is that we are obviously not alone with our Bruno-mania. It was just announced that Austrian film company Cine Tirol have signed on well-known German-speaking writers, directors and even actors for the film version of Bruno's escapades, tentatively titled The Bear is Loose.
The movie's due to be filmed in summer 2008 in Tyrol, in western Austria. We promise to bring you the ultimate in movie set travel through the beautiful hills of Tyrol when Bruno's on set. But right now we're just wondering how on earth they're going to make a movie-length story out of all this.
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