AE Grant Showcase 2024: Creating a Space for Empathy – New Grizzly Bear Den

In this grant presentation, ZooMontana shares their project: “Creating a Space for Empathy” which created multiple safe outdoor environments for animal residents to enjoy (voluntary) interactions with guests. This provided ZooMontana’s animal residents with an outdoor facility in which guests would be better able to observe relationships with staff, as well as training, education, and enrichment sessions (0:53-19:11). Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center present on their project: “New Grizzly Bear Den” which is a project that completes construction of a second bear den, which enables the organization to take in 8 additional grizzly bears that can no longer remain in the wild. Bears at GWDC facility act as ambassadors and assist their education staff in giving empathy-related interpretation programs to help visitors understand how they can recreate responsibility in bear country to ensure bears do not have to be euthanized and stay wild (19:39-42:10).