A Little Zoo with a Big Heart

The first time I ever encountered a grizzly bear was in Yellowstone National Park. A gorgeous hiking trail led me through magnificent, awe inspiring vistas. Passing beneath an umbrella of Engelmann spruce, just enjoying the remoteness of the park, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. Fifty feet from where my boots stopped, was what appeared to be a juvenile grizzly bear sleeping a few feet off of the trail.

Being the wise outdoors man, I stopped and took out my camera. What a great opportunity for a photo of this marvelous creature in its natural surroundings. It dawned on me, as I was snapping a few photos, the warnings of the national park concerning such encounters.

Please keep a distance of 300 hundreds yards and the parks bears.

As the juvenile opened its peepers, raised its rather large furry head, and stared at me, I thought, hmmm, maybe there is something to the warnings, after all. After five quick snaps with the camera, I slowly backed up the trail. By the time junior stood up and started sniffing the air, I was barreling down the trail I had come by, trying not to look like a tasty salmon in the process.

No, John didn't ride like Putin - he ran from the bear

“I’m glad your life insurance is paid up,” my lovely spouse, Laureen, said after I returned to camp and explained about my death-defying adventure.

The second time I came eye to eye with a grizzly bear was at the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, located in Moonridge, just north-east of the Bear Mountain Ski Resort in Big Bear in Southern California. It should be noted, that this zoo, according to The Active Times magazine, is one of the best small zoos in the United States – and that ain’t nothing to sneeze at!

This is more John's speed at handling a bear

This time though, the bear and I were separated by a chain link fence. “This is the way it’s done,” Laureen whispered in my left ear. I shrugged, in return.

That's a big bear next to Laureen!

According to the zoo curator, Bob Cisneros, the zoo has been captivating tourists and locals alike for over fifty years. The zoo started as a rescue mission for injured and misplaced animals after a terrifying and destructive forest fire descended on the San Bernardino National Forest in 1959. With nowhere to go, locals volunteered to take care of the animals injured in the fire with little or no direction of how to run an animal recuse. But soon, the Moonridge Animal Park (its original name) opened, and the rest is mountain history.

Through the generous donations of everyday people and a few government grants, the animal park continued to grow and grow. Today, now known at the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, the facility is home to over 85 species of animals and birds.

“Our rescues and imprinted animals (those animals that have been raised in captivity and then given up or released by their owners and cannot survive in the wild) equal roughly ninety percent of the zoo’s population,” Cisneros said.

The zoo takes up nearly two and half acres, nestled at roughly 7,100 feet above sea level, in the mountains and hosts tens of thousands of visitors per year.

And tourists have to have fun

But a new facility is in the works, and according to Cisneros, the five and a half acre site should be completed sometime between the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020.

“We don’t want to make the move during the winter,” he stated. “That would be hard on the animals and us, if there’s a lot of snow or ice.”

The new facility is just a short distance from the present site, and is nothing but state of the art in the world of zoos.

“This will be an amazing zoo when we get it completed. Many changes in the way it is run, including monthly wellness checks on all the animals in our care,” Cisneros said. “Top-notch and a big-league move for us here in Big Bear.”

With nearly twenty-two years, at the San Diego Zoo, one of the preeminent animal habitats in the nation, Cisneros wants the Big Bear Alpine Zoo to follow suit. “We’re on track to be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, only about ten percent of zoos in the United States have achieved that honor.”

“When I got here about four years or so ago, there was a lot of work to be done,” he acknowledged. “The people were doing an outstanding job, but we needed to move in a more progressive manner, for the animals and tourists alike.”

Though the new zoo has been in the works for nearly 20 years in all its phases, the movement for completion has really picked up speed under Cisneros’s vision.

Asked if he was excited about the completion of the new facility, he responded, “There’s so much to be done, it’s not exciting, it’s more like planning a huge wedding. The excitement will come the day, I see crowds coming through the new gates. For now, there’s too much to do to worry about how I’ll feel when it’s done.”

One of the new enclosures under construction

Artist's rendering of the new entrance to the zoo

That made sense to us, as we wandered through the present Alpine Zoo in Moonridge. A huge crowd of adults and children went from enclosure to enclosure, oohing and ahhhing, about this animal or that animal.

There were grizzly bears, black bears, bobcats, coyotes, barn owls, deer, and a whole host of other wildlife for the tourists. It was like being on Old McDonald’s Farm, except that I had never been on his farm, but it seemed like that would be a good analogy.

One enclosure housed a kit fox, by name of Kit Kat. One of the animal specialists, a young lady with a great personality by the name of Paula Burns, gave a short lecture, not only about Kit Kat, but about the zoo itself. But what interested us the most, was when she hid a dead mouse in Kit Kat’s abode and within fifteen seconds, that little fox found the treat.

Kit Kat is a pretty darn smart fox

“Kit Kat’s very smart,” she observed.

“I could do that, if you hid a cheeseburger,” I told Laureen.

“Especially if it had bacon on it,” she agreed. One second, and I would have found the hiding place, take that Kit Kat!

The new facility, according to Cisneros, will cost approximately eight million dollars, with nearly three million coming from donations. “The rest will be from government grants and the like.”

That alone should show how much the public wants and needs a zoo in the San Bernardino Mountains. Private donations making up a goodly sum of the total cost – rather impressive, to say the least.

We walked the zoo, taking photos here and there and realized how wonderful the staff at the Big Bear Alpine Zoo were to those under their care. Animals hurt, from being struck by vehicles, those harmed by insensitive humans, or simply those who could not fend for themselves in the wild and were brought to this sanctuary. Bob Cisneros, and his crew are heroes – for the wildlife and for us who want to come and visit that wildlife up close and personal.

Get out there and visit a zoo - it's a breath of fresh air. Generally, because most of it, is outside. But, watch the signs.

For more information: https://bigbearzoo.org/