Getting Up Close with Bears and Wolves at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

While Yellowstone National Park is probably most famous for its geologic features, getting a chance to spend time watching animals you don’t often get to see definitely ranks up there as one of the top experiences in the Park. Huge bison and majestic elk wander the park at will, unconcerned by the park’s human visitors. While these giants of the plains are exciting to see, they’re all over the park and fairly easy to spot. Other park inhabitants aren’t always so visible. 

Within the park’s 3,471 square miles, there are 728 known grizzly bears and around 123 gray wolves divided into at least 9 packs. While that means it is possible to see wolves and grizzlies on your trip, it isn’t super likely. 

That’s actually a good thing, though, since, in order for bear and wolf populations to thrive, they need to stay away from the places where humans gather. 

Still, getting to see and learn about these majestic animals is an awesome experience, which is why I loved getting to visit the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. 

What is it?

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is a rescue center for bears and wolves that have had to be removed from the wild. When large predators like these lose their fear of humans and start looking for food in our neighborhoods, they can’t really be left to roam free. It’s too dangerous. The Discovery Center gives them a place to live. 

That means that visitors can get the chance to see these amazing animals much closer up than you can in the wild, and get a great education on them to boot!

Where is it?

Why Should I Visit?

The big draw to the Discovery Center is getting to see wolves and bears up close, but apart from just getting to see the animals, there are actually a ton of great educational activities to take part in during your visit! 

Seeing the Animals

The Discovery Center has two separate wolf packs and 8 different grizzlies that you can see during your visit. The main bear habitat is front and center in the park, with a large viewing area where you can watch them forage for food. 

Staff regularly hides food in the habitat as a source of enrichment, giving the bears a chance to work to get their food.

Alongside the bears and wolves, the center also has a number of birds of prey, a few otters, and some ground squirrels, all of which are part of the Yellowstone ecosystem! 

Keeper Kids

The Keeper Kids program was my kids’ favorite part of the entire experience, hands down! It is about a 30-minute program where the kids get to learn about grizzly bear eating habits before getting their turn to enter into the bear habitat itself and hide food for the bears to find! 

There is a $5 fee to take part in the program, but it is well worth the experience! 

Museum

One of the main goals of the center is educating its visitors about bears and wolves and how to keep them wild. One of the ways they do that is through their excellent museum that focuses on the different bear species across America, including their hunting and feeding habits, life cycles, and more. I loved getting to see the comparisons between grizzlies and black bears, which really helped me to see the differences between the two. 

They also have an entire outdoor section of the museum dedicated to learning how to bear-proof the areas around your home so we can keep wild bears wild. 

Bear-proof Cooler testing 

Ever wonder how cooler companies test out how bear-proof their camping coolers actually are? 

One of the advantages of having so many grizzlies on-site is that companies have a convenient way of testing out just how bear-proof different coolers are. While we were there, we got to watch as one of the grizzlies did her best to tear into a cooler filled with fish and other bear treats! 

Companies send in their coolers to be tested by real bears so that their customers can be confident that a grizzly isn’t going to be getting into their snacks. Interestingly, this is actually more about protecting the bears than the snacks. Having coolers that bears can’t get into prevents bears from deciding that campsites are convenient places to find food, which goes a long way towards keeping them from getting too used to humans. 

Other Programs

The center has some other programs that weren’t happening on the days we visited as well. These include educational sessions on the wolves and birds of prey, as well as a demonstration on how to properly use bear spray. 

If you’re planning on visiting on a specific day, be sure to call their admissions desk for a full program schedule.

Getting the chance to see a bear or some wolves in the wild is definitely a wonderful opportunity, but it isn’t something that you can guarantee in the wild. Having a place like the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center available to visit not only helps to make these top predators much more accessible, but it also helps with conservation efforts through educating the public.

If you’re at all interested in seeing these amazing creatures up close, I highly recommend a visit.