Important to Know: To keep our grizzly and polar bears healthy and engaged, they are rotated between two major exhibit spaces at Glacier Run on an unpredictable schedule. Similar rotation strategies are used successfully in the award-winning Islands and Gorilla Forest. Click here to learn more about how and why we use rotation.
Meet Our Grizzly Bear, Otis
- Otis was born in February 2010 in the wilds of Montana. He was raiding chicken coups with his mother and sibling. The animals had been identified and trapped as “nuisance bears” by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes – Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation, and faced an uncertain future unless a home for them could be found in a zoo or other wildlife facility. As it happened the Louisville Zoo had been looking for a species of brown bear to inhabit Glacier Run in addition to polar bears. Otis has called Glacier Run home ever since.
- Otis enjoys frolicking in the Glacier exhibit pool and digging away in the mulch pit.
- He is bold and curious.