Just posting these pictures here because grizzly bears are cool and not very scary at all if you have a nice thick piece of glass between you and the bear. This grizzly lives at the Oakland Zoo.

The Oakland Zoo has two orphaned grizzly bear cubs. If this is a cub I’m not sure that I want to deal with a full grown grizzly. They can get up to 9 feet long and 1200 pounds. You can read about how the bear brothers came to the zoo in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

They have a nice big grassy enclosure to live in, with hills and dells and trees and a pool. It can be hard to spot them if they are not in the pool and not close to the viewing platform. My husband Jim was lucky and got these excellent photos.

When pioneers and gold seekers got to California there were grizzly bears everywhere. There was plenty of game and life was good for a bear at the top of the food chain. But they were hunted to extinction — the last grizzly was seen in California in 1924. I am glad they are back in California, in a safe environment.

And there he goes, over the hill and out of sight.