I have known them for over couple of years, eversince when they were little cubs less than a year old. I have not stopped by to say hi to my old pals in a while :), so today I decided to stop by and see how well they are doing. These orphaned cubs are part of an experiment (one of its kind in the world) to learn more about the natural behaviours of young grizzly bears who lose their mothers in the wild. Until now, there’s really no alternative available for the orphaned bears to be rehabilitated and released back in their natural environment. Merely, due to the fact that zoos are over populated and cannot provide environment which is anything like natural, and economically feasible options just aren’t available yet where the young bears can learn to adapt skills such hibernation, eating/hunting on their own.
During the first two to three years after birth, a young grizzly cub is nurtured by its mom. Mom also provides protection against wild animals especially the male bears which happen to be viciously cannibal. If the mom isn’t there anymore, the wild life officers are normally forced to shoot the young cub, because, there’s a very little chance that it could make it on its own. In Western parts of Canada, normally, 150-200 young grizzly cubs are shot each year. But, this is all about to change with the rehab experiment center on top of Vancouver’s own Grouse Mountain. The idea is to demonstrate the community of scientists and wildlife biologists that infact there are better and much more economical ways where a bear can be virtually raised in its wild environment, and once mature enough; safely released back into the wild. The problem has to be addressed due to somewhat declining figures of the Grizzly bear population in the areas of Alberta, and British Columbia.
Grinder and Coola are the focal part of this research based study. Coola, a coastal bear, comes from Bella Coola a town near the Prince George region of British Columbia, hence the name Coola. Apparently, its mom was killed by a car. And Grinder was found wandering near Invermere, BC, on the West side of the Rocky mountains. Even though, they are part of the same species, there are some significant differences between their overall makeup. Due to the abundance of salmon and other protein rich diets in the coastal areas, coastal bears are usually larger in size. Grinder is an interior bear, and naturally, lives mostly off of berries, roots, and bushes, therefore, its size also happens to be smaller. Grinder gets its name becuase of its ‘grinding teeth’ used for chewing, which are different from Coola’s, mostly used for cutting into flesh such as fish.
They seem to be coming along really well. Their pen or simulated natural habitat is enclosed in an area of close to 200 acres, with streams, lots of berry bushes, and a den where they hibernate during the winter season, and monitored by the scientists through night vision cameras. If everything goes well, the way it seems rightnow, both Coola and Grinder will be released back into their own habitat in another year or so. The scientists would like to take the same idea into the wild and create small sanctuaries, which are very economically feasible to create and maintain, following on the same idea, thus giving orphaned bear cubs a chance to learn techniques of the wild and consequently live, instead of being put to death 
this is Coola. It got fir which is slightly reddish in color
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As you can see, the fir of Grinder is slightly grey on top
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some more
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