The Washington State University (WSU) Bear Research, Education, and Conservation Center is the only grizzly bear research center of its kind in the United States. Federal and state biologists responsible for understanding and managing wild grizzly bears occasionally wanted to use captive bears in their studies. Because few zoos have the resources or sufficient numbers of bears to obtain meaningful data, the WSU Bear Center was established.
Each semester the WSU Bear Center accepts a number of student volunteers to assist with daily animal care tasks associated with managed care of our grizzly bears. This includes aspects of feeding, cleaning and enrichment most often, while also allowing for interactions with and observations of research personnel and graduate students and the associated research projects.
