Of Bears and Froot Loops

The bears up at Oswald's ranch are, for all intents and purposes, wild animals. They do not breed bears at Oswald's but take in orphans and raise them from cubs. Therefore, they are quite used to humans and human contact. I must say, however, that I was quite surprised to see one of the ranch's employees in the enclosure with the five young bears. He was feeding them Froot Loops, and had one of the bears sitting in a plastic lawn chair, contentedly licking cereal off its belly.



More, please!



Some of the others tried to sneak in and lick up a few morsels.



What a sweet face.



This fellow was named Chewbaka because he roared like the Star Wars character--especially when he was trying to win a sucker.



Directly behind this enclosure was the cub pen. They were difficult to photograph thanks again to the chain link fence and the fact that the pen is covered, making it pretty dark.



The same fellow who had been feeding cereal to the adolescents was now in with the cubs. He shoved maple tree branches through the wire, which the cubs had to climb to get at. They then proceeded to play with and munch on the leaves. So many people think bears are man-eating monsters, but in fact black bears are primarily vegetarians.



We couldn't pass up the chance to go in the pen with one of the cubs, so we paid our $5 to have our picture taken with one. Lisa and Lori got to feed him while I petted his head. Awww....



I want one!