Kissing Bears

Here is some video and pics from our first ever CCNWSA Homeschoolers Field Trip! We went to the Wild Animal Orphanage here in San Antonio and we had a great time. It is a really interesting place, they get animal from around the country, around the world that have been mistreated, abandoned or just can't be cared for anymore. They take them to this place here in town to allow the animal time to adjust and to quarantine them for awhile. Then they take them to another facility some where within 100 miles of here where the animals live in a more natural environment. Now these are tigers and monkeys and bears OH MY! So I am not sure how natural these environments are but they do their best make these "retired" animals comfortable.

Lots of the animals are former circus or show animals, including a huge Russian Grizzly Bear that was forced to dance for his food. That food was not "bear food" it was like pizza, beer and what ever junk they had left over. This bear was not doing well when he got there but "Boris" is a whopping 900lbs now! He was beautiful. He is still a performer by habit and was doing a bit of his dance for us in hopes of getting a branch of his favorite treat, hackberry leaves.

The 2 bears seen here will hopefully be companions to Boris in the future. They are brother and sister and love to play as you can see.


kissing bears from Jennifer Velarde on Vimeo.

The kids caught lots of photos and videos some of the best were of the big cats here are a few.




This guy was born with a defect caused by inbreeding of the white tigers. from the front he looks great but his hind quarters are weak and he struggles to walk.

They also have lots of stray cats for adoption so please check them out if you are looking for a feline friend!

It was worth the cost to get in, knowing that all of the money goes to helping maintain this facility.