A Walk on the Wild Side

On Sunday we took a drive in the late afternoon to check out the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  It's located in Keenesburg, Colorado, just south of I-76.   Trust me, it is way out in the "boonies"!

This is not a place that breeds animals.  The staff here attends to wild animals that were captive under the most unfortunate circumstances. Some were raised to be "pets" in basements, cages and other cramped places/ used for photography sessions or raised for their fur. Some of the bears had their teeth and claws removed, one was addicted to nicotine (the Russian circus trainer used cigarettes as a reward to train it).   The staff here has rescued animals from almost every state in the U.S.

I could almost hear Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz  say, "Lions, tigers and bears...oh my!" as we approached the entrance.

These two lions didn't seem to have a care in the world.  Talk about being relaxed!

There were hundreds of gulls flying around.  Odd to see, especially since this place is so far from the ocean!  Their numbers were matched only by the plethora of rabbits living out here on the prairie.

This bear had just woken up as we approached the enclosure.  He lumbered off to the pile of melons nearby, completely ignoring the gulls surrounding him.  He was on a mission.

The recently completed "Mile into The Wild" walkway allows visitors to observe and photograph animals above their compounds.  It has 100 sections of bridges that were added in multiple stages.  Sometimes, the animals were directly below us!

I caught a picture of these gulls looking down at the ground.  It was almost as if one was saying, "Hey, Gully, look at bear down there!  What in the world is he doing?"

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived, just when the animals were emerging from their dens and becoming more active.  We spotted this lone hybrid wolf up on a huge mound of dirt.

A few minutes later, another two hybrid wolves appeared at the end of the mound.  Didn't see them emerge....all of a sudden they were there and looking right at the first wolf.

It was interesting to observe the interaction between the different members of the pack.  I was snapping away as the gray one got closer and closer to the Alpha wolf.

This wolf was in a different compound and was much fatter and huskier than the first pack.  Looks like he was licking his chops and ready for supper.  Even though there are rabbits everywhere, all the animals ignore them.  They are intermittently fed a special diet, so they are never ravenous enough to hunt down and kill one of those cute bunnies.

It's "TCT" or tiger cuddle time in the early evening for these two!

I got a kick out of these two grizzlies.  The male was lumbering after the female along one side of their huge enclosure.  Apparently, he somehow ticked her off (like guys do at times) and she was having nothing to do with him.  She plopped herself in the big pond of water and wouldn't let him in!  He sat there beside it, looking dejected.  Maybe he learned his lesson and next time he'll be a bit nicer........

It's great to see these animals enjoying life.  They may not be out in the wild, but this is the next best thing.  Plus, they have "room service"!  Even though they can't order off the menu, I bet they are content with the meals.  The cottontail rabbits are also thankful for that!