Labor of Love
Photos and Writing by Patrick Olde Loohuis
This is the Washington State University Bear Center in Pullman, Washington. The staff here conduct studies on wild bears as part of the Bear Research, Conservation, & Education Program and take care of them while doing so. The Bear Center provides food, water and a playground for the bears to keep them happy and sustain them. They also bathe the bears to keep them clean. Many people in Pullman come to see the bears and enjoy watching them play with each other.
I went to the Bear Center and met with its manager Brandon Evans-Hutzenbiler. I captured photographs that explain how the bears are treated with loving care.
The Washington State University Bear Center from the south side.
The staff of the WSU Bear Center sitting in a truck. They routinely care for the bears by feeding, bathing and giving them water.
Brandon Evans-Hutzenbiler, the manager of the facility oversees operations and regularly feeds the bears and provides them with water.
A sign indicating the presence of the Bear Research, Conservation, & Education Program.
A brown bear behind a protective fence. One of many specimens at the WSU Bear Center.
A bear behind the protective fence bathing in a tub provided by the staff at the facility.
Two bears that have been released from their cages, walking in the area behind the protective fence.
A tire that the bears at the facility are known to play with.
A sign warning visitors not to approach the bears because they are wild animals.
A group of observers who have come to the facility to see the bears and take pictures of them.