 Zoo loses longtime animal favorite
Staff and members are mourning the loss of one of the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo's star attractions. “Griz,” a male Grizzly Bear also known as the Inland Brown Bear, was found dead early Sunday morning. The cause of death as determined by Sarah Link, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, was an gross rupture of an embolism of the mesentery tissue that supports the intestinal tract.
Richard Hahn, Chief Animal Person and Director of the Wildlife Preserve, remembers holding Griz as a cub and feeding him from a bottle. While Griz's adult size and strength made it unsafe to have personal contact with him, staff and regular guests often felt a mesmerizing, if not spiritual connection with the huge mammal.
According to Whitney Hahn, the owner’s daughter “I was always surprised by how selective he was with his reactions to people. A whole group of school kids could be yelling his name, trying to get him to come out of his den, and he would just ignore them. But if I came by and called out, he would amble out to greet me.”
It was that kind of individual personality that made the Grizzly a favorite with zoo guests. The zoo personnel placed a mailbox by his exhibit so youngsters could fill it with notes, pictures and letters. Volunteers would “help” Griz reply to his fan mail. In one such correspondence, Griz addressed a girl's fears over her upcoming surgery, telling her about his own vet visits. In this way, says Hahn, “Griz was a beautiful ambassador for his species, and seemed to make people aware of things we have in common with all living creatures.”
Griz was born at an Ohio zoo in 1986, and arrived at Catoctin when he was 6 months old. Weighing just 45 pounds then, the bear grew to a very impressive 1,732 pounds as determined after his death. This is very close to the maximum weight of 1716 pounds recorded for a wild Kodiak Brown Bear.
Griz was about two months shy of his 20th birthday in January which the zoo always celebrated in May. Each bear year is equivalent to about 2 ½ human years. In the wild, Grizzlies average less than 12 years. The oldest wild Grizzly was recorded. at close to 25 years. In a protected environment like a zoo or wildlife preserve, they have lived over 36 years
Catoctin Wildlife Preserve plans to have a bronze cast made of the bear's foot prints to display in memory of Griz. We hope to have the casting in place when the park reopens next spring. Contributions toward this memorial may be sent to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve, earmarked for “GRIZ”. A portion of the proceeds will also be sent to Vital Ground, a non profit founded by Bart the movie Bear’s owners. It will be used to set aside wilderness land in the western United States for the remaining wild roaming Grizzly Bears.
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