Grandfather Mountain bear habitat welcomes Fanny May, a black bear with a big personality

By Web Staff

Click here for updates on this story

    LINVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Grandfather Mountain’s Mildred the Bear Animal Habitats recently welcomed a new member to its family — a female black bear.

Fanny May is a 5-year-old black bear with a big personality and lots of youth.

She arrived at Grandfather Mountain in spring 2021 after the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission determined she needed a placement. The park had room for her and deemed her a good fit for the facility.

“Moving into a new environment like she did, she was a little stressed. So we took our time working with her and spent a lot of time with her, talking to her and getting her used to her new keepers and new home. In order to do that, we actually asked some of our volunteers to come down and read to her,” said Christie Tipton, Habitats Curator with the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation.

Over the past year, the staff has worked hard to help Fanny May grow accustomed to her surroundings — and utilized unique approaches to do so.

Volunteers Ken and Barb Tatje spent many moments the first few months of Fanny’s arrival reading some of their favorite books to her, including the Bible and children’s classics such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

Getting to know Fanny May “We started reading to the cougars when they came here six years ago to help them become more comfortable. It worked pretty well, so this past year when Fanny arrived, they asked us to come down and read to her. Fanny became accustomed to hearing our voices and seeing us. It helped her feel less stressed and to relax more,” Ken Tatje said.

Although relaxed bears are known to eat more consistently, the animal keepers quickly learned that Fanny was a picky eater. They had to get creative to entice her to consume the healthy diet plan that all the mountain’s animals are fed.

“We had to get a bit creative with her diet, because she wasn’t used to the diet that our bears are fed, which includes a dry omnivore kibble and lots of veggies and fruits like apples, carrots, oranges, sweet potatoes, lettuce, and berries. We started putting little bits of sweet stuff like honey in her food to encourage her to eat her new food. Now she is eating all of her food very well, and one of her favorite treats is watermelon,” Tipton said.

The mountain’s youngest of the six bears in the bear habitat, Fanny has shown a fascination for the toys and enrichments that the keepers share with her. She can often be found playing with these enrichments in her enclosure and doing what the keepers refer to as “bear yoga,” or the interesting positions the bears get in by stretching their legs out or sticking their paws up in the air.

The keepers said what has intrigued them the most about Fanny is her innate intelligence and how quickly she picked up the daily routine.

“Fanny May is an extremely smart bear. She was able to pick up on everything from shifting into her holding area to eat, so we can get in her habitat to clean, to scale training her to weigh her every month,” Tipton said. “Since she has been here, she has become very relaxed. She loves to come and hang out with us while on the other side of the fence. She has become very accustomed to her new home.”

While Fanny has become accustomed to her keepers, she is still hesitant around strangers. For that reason, she is slowly being introduced to guests. Sporadically throughout the year, the keepers will be putting her in the on-display habitats so visitors get a chance to see her and she gets used to seeing the visitors at the overlooks.

To help support the care of Grandfather Mountain’s resident animals by symbolically adopting Fanny May and the other habitat animals, visit grandfather.com/adopt.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.