We have received several questions about our yearling, Colton, and where he will be released.  Concern was expressed that we are feeding him and then he’ll be released at the start of hunting season.  This is not the way that TWRA operates.  When he is released, it will be into a “bear sanctuary,” an area where hunting is not permitted.  They will leave him at ABR long enough for him to unlearn some of the bad habits he was beginning to form.  Our curators tell us that Colton will go out into the Wild Side within a few days, where he will have even less exposure to them. He will have to start foraging for the food that is thrown up and over the fencing.  Any photos that will show him in the Wild Side will be taken with a very long lens, from a blind above the fencing.  TWRA and ABR are expecting that he will learn to be a wild bear again, and won’t become a panhandler, since he’ll be released far from humans, and in an area where the acorns are dropping.

Here is another view of Colton Bear in his present habitat, the Palace.