Montana’s Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is an unusual facility. Located just outside of Yellowstone National Park, it’s not only unique for what it houses—gray wolves, griz, birds of prey, and Karelian bear dogs—but for what it uses its bears to accomplish. Despite its not-for-profit status and enviro-friendly aura, this is an important testing and research facility.
What are they testing and researching, you ask? Coolers.
Kayak-molded coolers, trash cans, chicken coops. You name it. If it’s marketed as bear-proof or could be opened by a bear in the course of the animal’s existence, it gets tested within the center’s confines.
Make no mistake—these bears aren’t put-upon servants of mankind, exploited for their animal intellect at the expense of their health or happiness. The bears are actually problem animals from as far away as Alaska or as close by as the national park next door. Rather than euthanize the bears or relocate them for the umpteenth time, the facility puts the bears to work, utilizing their special skills to help improve human containers and, hopefully, reduce the number of bear encounters that lead to others grizzlies being put down.
There are eight bear testers inside GWDC. Products are covered in peanut butter, meat, and/or fish, then given to a bear to be pawed, bitten, and tossed around for one hour. If it’s able to endure the punishment, the product earns the center’s bear-resistance certification, a coveted proof of quality in the outdoor industry.
Manufacturers pay $500 for access to the bears, with certain individuals gaining notoriety for their thorough testing behavior. One bear, Kobuk, has been nicknamed “The Destroyer” for his enthusiastic performance.
GWDC tests as many as 80 products each year, operating under a testing protocol that was developed between the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, and the Discovery Center itself. At this time, GWDC is the only facility approved for testing products with the IGBC.
GWDC is open 365 days a year. The center’s bears do not hibernate, so they can test products—and you can visit—the whole year round. To find out more about the testing procedures and to plan your own visit, visit the center’s website today.