The Bears at Skansen Are NOT Tame.
Public Service Announcement!
So I've been doing book research, which leads me to Skansen. It is quite an awesome place in Stockholm, a sort of zoo/outside museum of old buildings and neighbourhoods, and one of my characters works there as an animal caretaker. (There are also lemurs. The lemurs are very important.) I've been emailing a bit back and forth with Linda, the animal curator and therefore the Boss Of Animal Caretakers, to get the lowdown on what one actually does in that line of work, and it's been worth its weight in gold. It's really cool how nice people are when you tell them you're writing a book. But I mean, who wouldn't be, if someone asked you to tell them about what you do and are very nice about it.
After a while of trying to get chapter five to behave properly (it's being naughty) I realised that I'm going to have to go to Skansen, and maybe even possibly go into the place where the Skansen bears spend hibernation, so I can properly describe it in the narrative. I had found a news segment of it from about a year ago, when there were three-month old bear cubs that were supposed to come out but didn't because it was too cold, so instead the crew was allowed into the hibernation place to film.
It's in Swedish, but the cubs appear at around 0.24. And they are cute. You know you want to watch. The blonde woman they interview is Linda.
So I wrote to Linda asking very nicely if I may be let inside hibernation and check it out, just for a few minutes. And, because people are awesome, she said it was okay.
So on sunny Tuesday me and Gecka went to Skansen, which was glorious. I now very much regret not bringing a camera.
We were greeted at the Bear Hill by Linda, and she took us to the hibernation place. If you've ever seen a horse's stable, it was kind of like that, only with a LOT more steel bars. Which I am all for by the way. Bears are scary to be close to.
Linda: There is a bear inside today, so please stay away from the bars. They can reach out about an arm's length, and they love to reach out and drag things into them. You don't want to leave a rake too close to the bars, because there won't be much left of them later.
Me and Gecka: ...'Kay. *sweatdrop*
We found out many interesting things, like that bears don't like pineapples much. I don't either, so I now know that I share a link with bears. It's deep. Other things we learned was that bears do hang out in groups, and when they hibernate they go to sleep in those groups as well, so it's all snuggly. They like making beds for themselves out of hay to sleep on, and in the wild, they mostly spend their time looking for food. It's what they do. Since food is provided for them here, the caretakers usually make it fun by digging stuff down outside in their habitat, like raisins, nuts and berries. They put apples in the little pool for them to fish out, and they also pour syrup on the trees, because syrup is om nom nom.
And Gecka asked, so sweetly and hopefully, if the bears were tame. Since well, they know the caretakers, hypothetically they might be able to come close enough to maybe pet them? Especially since they're most often born in captivity and were brought up near humans.
The bears are not tame. We must all remember this. The bears are NOT tame.
So in conclusion, brilliant day (despite it being too cold for the lemurs, apart for one that we saw), young bears wrestling are cute, and the bears at Skansen are NOT tame.
Petting them is stupid and you might be mauled. Maybe. If you angered the bear. So don't pet the bear.
So I've been doing book research, which leads me to Skansen. It is quite an awesome place in Stockholm, a sort of zoo/outside museum of old buildings and neighbourhoods, and one of my characters works there as an animal caretaker. (There are also lemurs. The lemurs are very important.) I've been emailing a bit back and forth with Linda, the animal curator and therefore the Boss Of Animal Caretakers, to get the lowdown on what one actually does in that line of work, and it's been worth its weight in gold. It's really cool how nice people are when you tell them you're writing a book. But I mean, who wouldn't be, if someone asked you to tell them about what you do and are very nice about it.
After a while of trying to get chapter five to behave properly (it's being naughty) I realised that I'm going to have to go to Skansen, and maybe even possibly go into the place where the Skansen bears spend hibernation, so I can properly describe it in the narrative. I had found a news segment of it from about a year ago, when there were three-month old bear cubs that were supposed to come out but didn't because it was too cold, so instead the crew was allowed into the hibernation place to film.
It's in Swedish, but the cubs appear at around 0.24. And they are cute. You know you want to watch. The blonde woman they interview is Linda.
So I wrote to Linda asking very nicely if I may be let inside hibernation and check it out, just for a few minutes. And, because people are awesome, she said it was okay.
So on sunny Tuesday me and Gecka went to Skansen, which was glorious. I now very much regret not bringing a camera.
We were greeted at the Bear Hill by Linda, and she took us to the hibernation place. If you've ever seen a horse's stable, it was kind of like that, only with a LOT more steel bars. Which I am all for by the way. Bears are scary to be close to.
Linda: There is a bear inside today, so please stay away from the bars. They can reach out about an arm's length, and they love to reach out and drag things into them. You don't want to leave a rake too close to the bars, because there won't be much left of them later.
Me and Gecka: ...'Kay. *sweatdrop*
We found out many interesting things, like that bears don't like pineapples much. I don't either, so I now know that I share a link with bears. It's deep. Other things we learned was that bears do hang out in groups, and when they hibernate they go to sleep in those groups as well, so it's all snuggly. They like making beds for themselves out of hay to sleep on, and in the wild, they mostly spend their time looking for food. It's what they do. Since food is provided for them here, the caretakers usually make it fun by digging stuff down outside in their habitat, like raisins, nuts and berries. They put apples in the little pool for them to fish out, and they also pour syrup on the trees, because syrup is om nom nom.
And Gecka asked, so sweetly and hopefully, if the bears were tame. Since well, they know the caretakers, hypothetically they might be able to come close enough to maybe pet them? Especially since they're most often born in captivity and were brought up near humans.
The bears are not tame. We must all remember this. The bears are NOT tame.
So in conclusion, brilliant day (despite it being too cold for the lemurs, apart for one that we saw), young bears wrestling are cute, and the bears at Skansen are NOT tame.
Petting them is stupid and you might be mauled. Maybe. If you angered the bear. So don't pet the bear.