Espen and Koda Website Update May 6, 2009

Espen and Koda are being cared for at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Northern British Columbia with support from IFAW. These two bears were found close to Lillooet BC (approximately 3 hours north of Vancouver). The bears were orphaned when a man shot their mother in self-defence. They are now part of our groundbreaking pilot project aimed at rehabilitating and releasing orphaned grizzly bears back to the wild.

Over the winter, Espen and Koda semi-hibernated in their artificial dens, which means they ate very little and slept for a few days at a time. But now that spring is here they are very active - turning logs over looking for insects, swimming in the pond created in their enclosure from the snow melt and eagerly waiting for the grass to come up so they can munch on it.

When they first arrived at the shelter, Espen emerged as the more daring of the two bears. His name translates to "Warrior of the Bear", which suits him perfectly. He was always the first to check things out and defended his finds (especially food) successfully against the much quieter Koda, whose name means “Friend”.

However, Koda has now taken on the leadership role and although Espen is at ease with this, he stays out of Koda’s way. They also spend a lot of time playing together, rolling around like kids, chasing each other and splashing in the water.

Their favourite foods remain anything sweet – like grapes or apples.

Once the snow melts Espen and Koda can look forward to being released as they are definitely ready to go back to the wild. Their daily movements will be monitored just like Suzy and Johnny. Espen and Koda will also be fitted with special satellite collars and their movements will be tracked by field researchers.

The bears are scheduled to be released in late spring 2009.