Ramble Bear, a 23-year-old rescued Ussuri brown bear, acts more like a poodle than a predator. He blinks and licks my hand through the protective fence, very demure. His tongue is surprisingly soft. “He’s a big flirt,” Susan B. Eirich, licensed psychologist, biologist, and founder of Earthfire Institute Wildlife Sanctuary & Retreat Center, tells me during my visit to the center just west of Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. state of Idaho. Eirich has a biology degree, but after getting a Ph.D. in psychology decided to work with people in maximum-security prisons. Then, in the late 1990s, her life took an unexpected turn when she was invited to help raise seven wolf puppies rescued from a movie set. “When you get an offer like that, you drop everything,” Eirich says. “Holding those puppies close to your heart while you’re feeding them and feeling their heart beating and feeling their vitality — I just fell hopelessly, totally, completely in love.” Susan Eirich with the foundling wolf pups that inspired the Earthfire Institute. Photo courtesy of Earthfire Institute. That love was a catalyst for action, and in 2000, Eirich and her late partner, Jean Simpson, who was a professional wild animal trainer, founded the Earthfire Institute. The now 165-acre (67-hectare) property connects to the Yellowstone-to-Yukon migration trail, protecting critical habitat for the biodiversity in the region. Eirich has shared this wildlife sanctuary with bears, bison, bobcats, chickens, cougars, coyotes, deer, donkeys, foxes, horses, lynx, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, turkeys, wolves,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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