The observation window at the JP Kodiak Bear Exhibit is offers a wonderful view of Munsey and Boda while their eating, playing and interacting with zoo guests. It’s that time of year when many school groups are stopping in to visit the animals at Wildwood Zoo!
If you happen to see me around and want an update on the bears, please feel free to stop and me any questions. I’m usually wearing a camera around my neck , small backpack and sometime a chart for documenting information about the bears.
On Saturday, May 13th Munsey and Boda spent a few hours floating and playing with the metal beer keg in the pond located in the Bear Woods habitat area at Wildwood Zoo in Marshfield Wisconsin.
The Kodiak bear’s seemed almost well behaved as they shared the empty beer keg.
I often wonder if Munsey and Boda can smell the remains of the beer inside the keg.
Of course Munsey and Boda have to hug each other /wrestle each other in the water as well as on land! On their most active days the bears will play tag and wrestle with each other every 20 to 30 minutes. The interaction can last anywhere from 2 minutes to 10 minutes.
Since the bears have such a heightened sense of smell, I wonder if they can identify what their brother has eaten for a meal that day? The specific action between the two bears is considered a positive interaction.
Yes, Munsey and Boda are once again climbing high into the tree tops!
Maybe it was the wonderful guitar music that inspired Boda to take to the tree tops in the late afternoon on Saturday May 13th, 2017.
While Boda was pruning the tree tops, Munsey was collecting the branches that Boda was dropping all around him. 
That’s little branch is holding up about 600 lbs. of Kodiak bear. Things got a little tense when Boda placed his weight on dead or partially broken branch and I could hear the branch cracking from the bears weight. I’m sure Boda could feel the branch giving underneath him! So he maneuvered himself around and shifted his weight onto another branch!
This video was taken on May 13th, 2017.
Munsey (one of two rescued Kodiak bears living in the JP Adler Kodiak Bear Exhibit at Wildwood Zoo in Marshfield, Wisconsin was intrigued by the guitar playing zoo guest (Lance Jacobs) that came to entertain the animals at Wildwood Zoo.
I’d been thinking about exposing the cubs to music and observe how they react to the music. Thanks to Lance Jacobs, that surprised us today, I was able to document the reaction of the cubs to live music.
Boda (Munsey’s brother) didn’t seem to react to the music (he kept swimming and playing with his beer keg) but Munsey was captivated by the music and followed the musician t back and forth as he played his guitar for the Kodiak bears.
To learn more about the rescued Kodiak bear cubs and their life at Wildwood Zoo go to the following links
www.wendlandtsusan.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/wildwoodzoo/
http://visitmarshfield.com/bears/
http://mmcebooks.a2hosted.com/2017/04/14/zoo-view-april-2017/
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=773
http://www.13abc.com/content/news/Rescued-brown-bears-on-exhibit-at-the-Toledo-Zoo-383093881.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx4wojsKPpY&feature=youtu.be
Munsey and Boda seem to know when it’s breakfast or lunch time at Wilwood Zoo. So they often decide to keep a watchful eye out for Steve Burns (the head zookeeper) or other trained staff members that serve them their meals everyday.
The video clip above depicts Munsey, Boda and Dodge after they were rescued on Kodiak Island and taken to the Zoo in Anchorage.
The photographs (above the video clip) were taken shortly after the cubs arrived at the Wildwood Zoo in Marshfield Wisconsin.
The video link below explains the rescue story of Munsey, Boda and Dodge and includes photographs of when the cubs were first rescued. I also recommend that you check out the two links that are provided with this video, to learn about the Grand Opening and other information about the rescue of the Kodiak Bear Cubs.
The link below is a video of Munsey and Boda’s first Birthday party that was celebrated at Wildwood Zoo in Marshfield, Wiscosnin.
Tree climbing is a favorite pass time for the cubs. Here are two video clips of Munsey and Boda climbing the tree’s. The first video is of the cubs climbing in October 2015 and the other two video’s depict the cubs climbing the tree’s in April of 2017.
Munsey and Boda have a brother Dodge that lives at the To
ledo Zoo in Ohio. Dodge has bonded with two female Grizzly cubs. To learn more about Dodge, go to the follwing links below.
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=773
http://www.13abc.com/content/news/Rescued-brown-bears-on-exhibit-at-the-Toledo-Zoo-383093881.html
Since I’ve been documenting the rescued Kodiak bear cubs since October 2015, I’ve taken thousands of photographs. So when I over heard the zoo staff talking about the dental health of the bears, I thought I might be able to provide a some assistance.
I returned to my computer and began looking for photographs that happened to of captured the bears with their mouths open and teeth exposed. I then labeled each image file to include the word teeth, so the images would be easy to retrieve and share with the zoo staff. These images assist the zoo staff with a better understanding of the growth and dental health of the bears over a period of time.
I thought it might be interesting to share some close up photographs of the paws of a two year old Kodiak bear.
The paws are huge and have unbelievable strength and agility!
As I continue to observe the Kodiak bear cubs, I’m astonished by the cubs ability to manipulate the claws with the same agility as a human. The hump on the Kodiak bear is made of muscle which developed presumably for imparting force in digging and helps with when constructing dens.
This week I began recording the movements and activities of Munsey and Boda. The last time I had done a detailed documentation of the cubs was in late October and early November of 2016.
It’s always interesting to get a more in-depth view of the bears and discover patterns schedules and characteristics that I wouldn’t of noticed if I hadn’t taken the time to graph the detailed movements of the bears.
This information is always shared with the staff at Wildwood Zoo, including the photographs and video’s. It’s my personal way of repaying the Zoo for all the time I spend there while photographically recording the cubs growth and development since they arrived in October of 2015.
On Monday I also had taken photographs and video’s to match the written documentation, so if someone wanted to look at the documentation in the distant future, they could go back in time and see the cubs as they were in the past, while I was graphing and taking notes on their behavior.
Each image has a designated period of time added to the digital file number to use with the graphing chart and notations that were taken at that specific time.
Whenever I post images of Munsey and Boda splashing in the pools / ponds or wrestling around in the Bear Woods , please remember that these bears are created with built in protective gear! I think of them as high school hockey players, they have the equipment to play very rough and not hurt each other.
Munsey and Boda often drop their favorite toys down in the pit! (The PIT is a section of the old bear exhibit that drops about 15 to 20 feet down and was created to keep the old bears inside the bear exhibit without using a fence or other obstructive devices that would block the vision for the zoo guest while watching the bears.
Munsey and Boda often drop their red and blue balls and favorite fire hose in the pit and wait for the staff to retrieve the toys. The problem is that the bears do this fairly often and then the bears attempt to retrieve the toys themselves. Thank goodness the zoo staff comes and retrieves the items but these bears behave exactly like a child that two years of age, so you know the ball’s going down into the PIT again in the near future.
Interaction with zoo guest’s in always a great experience for everyone! People are thrilled to see the cubs up close and personal! I’m thrilled to be able to photograph and video the bears without dealing with light reflecting off the fencing! Keep in mind I really appreciate the devices used keep the bears and zoo guests safe at Wildwood Zoo. If not for those devices, I’d never be able to document the Kodiak bears with such ease and consistency.
I’m looking forward to working on my five days of graphing documentation to see what new things the zoo staff and I can learn about Munsey and Boda and compare the information to my last charts and future charts.
Munsey and Boda have a brother Dodge that lives at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. Didge has bonded with two female Grizzly cubs. To learn more about Dodge go to the following links…
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=773
http://www.13abc.com/content/news/Rescued-brown-bears-on-exhibit-at-the-Toledo-Zoo-383093881.html
https://www.facebook.com/pg/wildwoodzoo/videos/https://www.facebook.com/pg/wildwoodzoo/videos/
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In the last week or so, I’v noticed that Munsey and Boda have been observing the construction crew working on a new building that’s going to be located on the north side of the Bear Woods. At times the bears would sit by the fence for 30 to 45 minutes watching the crew as they worked on the new project.
I really hadn’t thought that the bears could be learning new skills while watching the construction crew until I observed Munsey using a skill that I’d never seen him perform since his arrival at Wildwood Zoo.
I’m sure that Munsey and Boda had the ability to move large branches around in this fashion before but this is the first time I’ve ever seen them maneuver the branches while walking on his hind legs.
On the day Munsey was performing this action the construction workers hadn’t been working at the zoo because of poor weather conditions.
iMAGiNETHAT! 