The Big Bear Alpine Zoo is a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is a snow and rain fed lake, having no other means of tributaries or mechanical replenishment. At a surface elevation of , it ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It is one of two Alpine zoos in the United States. It specializes in the rehabilitation and release of local Alpine species and also has a permanent collection of animals in the zoo (most of which can not be released). It was located across the street from Bear Mountain Ski Resort.

History

The Big Bear Alpine Zoo has been saving alpine wildlife since 1959. Originally it was not a zoo, but a safe place for injured animals to rehabilitate and get a second chance back in the wild. The facility is owned and operated by Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park District, a Special District of the County of San Bernardino. The Big Bear Alpine Zoo is a rehabilitation facility offering injured, orphaned and imprinted wild animals a safe haven; temporarily while they heal or permanently as they are unable to survive on their own. 90% of all animals brought to the zoo for rehabilitation are successfully released back onto their native environment. Those that remain on exhibit are either too injured or have been imprinted by humans and cannot be released back into the wild to care for themselves. The "Friends of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo" was formed in 1989 as a non-profit 501(c)(3)

public-benefit corporation Public-benefit corporation may refer to several types of corporate entity: United Kingdom * public benefit corporation, the legal form of NHS foundation trusts United States * Benefit corporation or public-benefit corporation, for profit but with ...

whose purpose is to support the Big Bear Alpine Zoo through: (1) Educating the public regarding treatment, protection, and conservation of wildlife; (2) Recruiting and coordinating park volunteers; and (3) Fundraising. The zoo began construction of a new location in 2016, and opened to the public November 5, 2020. The address is 747 Clubview Drive., Big Bear Lake.

Animals

The Big Bear Alpine Zoo provides wildlife rehabilitation and release. Those animals that cannot be released are given a home for life in the zoo. The Big Bear Alpine Zoo is the only zoological facility located in an alpine forest specializing in alpine species. zoo residents include

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

s, black bears,

cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

, and

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

s, to name a few of the 160 animals representing 80 species.

References

External links

* Parks in San Bernardino County, California Zoos in California Zoos established in 1959 {{California-stub