There aren’t many people in the world who don’t know about the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected over 500,000 people, killed 23,000 and ravaged several countries such as Italy, China and the U.S. In fact, many are seeking a break from the daily churn of gloomy pandemic updates and self-isolation tips.
Anyone looking for a welcome distraction found it in Boo the bear in Golden, B.C.
A video of Boo, a hulking grizzly bear, groggily emerging from his snowy hibernation in time for spring has racked up more than 100,000 views on Twitter. In the video, Boo pops his head out of a thick layer of snow and looks around confusedly as his caretaker, Nicole Gangnon, excitedly films him on her cellphone.
“Eight years it took me to catch this moment,” she says gleefully as Boo lumbers his way into the sunlight.
Gangnon, who along with a colleague has been taking care of Boo ever since he was a little bit more than a year old, said she had attempted to catch this moment for years, with the help of surveillance and trail cameras. “But you know how, when you try to get something with technology, technology fails you at that moment?” she told the National Post.
Thankfully, this time, it all worked out.
For the past 18 years, Boo has lived at the Grizzly Bear Refuge, a sprawling 20-acre enclosure, owned by the Kicking Horse resort in Golden. He was born in the wild with his brother Cari, Gangnon says, but was found after their mother was found shot dead by a poacher. With little-to-no rehabilitation resources available at the time, the only option was to euthanize the bear cubs or take them into captivity at the refuge, she said.
Within a year of living at the refuge, Cari died from a twisted intestine. But Boo continued to thrive and has become the refuge’s ambassador. “He helps us educate the public on his kind, why they’re there, their importance to the ecosystem,” Gangnon said.
As a male bear, Boo is accustomed to an independent lifestyle, and switches between his habitat in the summer and a manmade cabin den in the winter, where he hibernates, often buried under more than two metres of snow. The snow helps to insulate the cabin, Gangnon explained, and also allows the sun to seep through as spring approaches, indicating to Boo that the winter season is ending.
On March 17, Gangnon said she was repairing the electric fences that surround the habitat when she heard shuffling-like sounds coming from Boo’s den. “I’ve heard them before, sometimes it’s just him shifting or stretching his muscles,” she said.
However, as she could hear him begin to dig through the snow — a sign that he was ready to emerge — Gangnon climbed up onto the roof of the den and got her phone-camera ready. “I could hear him sniffing and digging and pause to figure out what direction to go into,” she said.
Moments later, a fracture appeared on the surface. And Gangnon turned her phone camera on, just in time to catch Boo peeking out. “ You could hear the elation in my voice to capture that moment,” she said. “It’s like a family member went away and then a grand reunion.”
Despite the current pandemic, Gangnon said that she and her colleague will continue looking after Boo.
“We are considered essential as we do need to be around to take care of Boo and provide him with what he needs,” she said. Rules on social-distancing and self-isolation would have almost no effect on Boo’s schedule of sleeping and eating — if anything, according to Gangnon, the lack of skiers at the resort this year means Boo can move from his den into his habitat earlier than usual.
And once there, Boo will continue on with his spring and summer, blissfully unaware of COVID-19 and the little relief he brought to his many fans on social media.
“ It’s important that people have something happy to reflect on, with the panic and sadness in the media right now,” Gangnon said.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
