Dazed grizzly bear emerges from its snowy hibernation…and becomes a viral star
- Boo the bear was spotted by ranger Nicole Gangnon in the Canadian Rockies
- She has been trying to get a glimpse of a bear in hibernation for eight years
- Gangnon’s viral video has achieved nearly 170,000 views on Twitter to date
- Boo was orphaned with his brother when his mother was killed by poachers
Think you know all about self-isolation, eh? Well, think again.
Viral footage has emerged of the first moment a grizzly bear awoke from hibernation from beneath a log cabin in the Canadian Rockies where he sleeps each winter.
‘Boo’ the bear was captured on camera by Nicole Gangnon on 17 March.
Gangnon is the manager of the Grizzly Bear Refuge, which is located close to the Kicking Horse ski resort, near the town of Golden, in Canada.
The elated park ranger had been trying to catch a glimpse of a bear coming out of hibernation for eight years.
Her viral video has achieved nearly 170,000 views on Twitter to date.
The video begins with a movement in the snow, and then out pops Boo’s nose and head.
‘Hi’, says the ranger, surprised. She then begins laughing with pure joy at having caught the amazing moment on film.
‘Eight years it took me to catch this moment. Yeh – hello!’ she shouts.
Boo continues to wriggle and writhe out of the two-meter-deep snow where he has spent months in slumber.
‘Oh my big boy, Momma’s so proud of you. You are such a good sight,’ she says.
A groggy Boo eventually fully emerges from the freezing snow, looking around a bit dazed and disoriented.
Get me outta here! Boo the bear lethargically writhes free of the snow bank he’s slept in
‘We’ve always set up trail cameras and our surveillance cameras,’ Gangnon told the Guardian.
‘And it just seems like every time he decides to dig out, our technology fails us and we can never capture that moment.’
Out and about – Boo the bear emerges from the snow to a much warmer welcome from the park ranger
Boo the bear was born in the wild, but now lives at the Grizzly Bear Refuge.
The enclosure is some 20 acres, near the town of Golden, in Canada.
Boo’s mother was killed by poachers in the Cariboo Mountains in 2002. Soon after that, Boo arrived at the refuge with his brother Cari.
The brothers are both named after the Cariboo Mountains.
Unfortunately, Cari died during the brother’s first winter from a twisted intestine.
But Boo continued to be a hit with tourists down the years.
The cabin in the Rockies under which Boo hibernates is also a bear hibernation research laboratory.
‘It’s just beautiful to see him face-to-face rather than on a camera,’ said Gangnon to the Guardian newspaper. ‘He’s so happy and that just makes your heart sing.’
‘Once he gets up, you can see he’s got a grin on his face. He’s like: ‘Hello, world, here I am again’.’
Gangnon said Boo’s emergence from hibernation moved her to tears.
She added, it was ‘something everybody needed’ in a world which feels ‘so uncertain’ right now.