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August 2008 Featured Story
Greensburg Grizzly Adventure
Chuck, a grizzly cub, may look like a giant teddy bear in the arms of his owner and handler, Jeff Watson, but even at 6-months, the playful 90-pound bear has the teeth, claws and power that demand Watson’s respect. Watson, a nationally-noted bear handler and Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC consumer from Owen County, will be sharing his bears and expertise at the entertaining and educational Greensburg Grizzly Adventure opening at the Stapp’s Circle S Ranch this month.
New bear park opening in August of 2008 is culmination of handler’s dream
Jeff Watson is a bear owner and handler who’s rubbed elbows with celebrities from show biz and the animal world for 20 years. His star bear, Brody, an Alaskan Kodiak, has appeared on a National Geographic cover, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Good Morning America;” and in multiple TV shows, movies, commercials and print ads. Mostly, Watson and Brody have traveled to sport shows nationwide teaching outdoor enthusiasts about bears and how to stay safe in bear country.
But this month begins the adventure Watson said he’s been waiting for all of his professional life. He and his bears have found a permanent home to entertain and educate. And it’s right here in his home state. The Greensburg Grizzly Adventure is set to open the first of August at Stapp’s Circle S Ranch, an exotic animal park just east of Greensburg in Decatur County.
“Putting a bear on a plane and flying to LAX … there’s no fun in that,” Watson said. “The film work doesn’t really appeal to me. The commercials don’t really appeal to me.… My interest is interacting with the bears.”
The Greensburg Grizzly Adventure will feature Watson and his four adult brown bears — Brody, Bruno, Buck and Marty — and his newest bear, a grizzly cub named Chuck. From a 10-foot-by-100-foot platform above the bear enclosures, visitors at the Adventure will be able watch these massive and beautiful animals going about daily routines and interacting with Watson who has raised and handled them since each was a cub.
The live presentations will not be a “circus show,” he said, but will educate and inform visitors in an entertaining way — akin to the Animal Planet programs featuring the late Australian “Crocodile Hunter,” Steve Irwin.
“Steve Irwin wasn’t popular because he was a conservationist,” Watson said. “Steve Irwin was popular because he interacted with dangerous wild animals. That’s what people like to see. A lot of times you have to entertain people to educate them.”
The educational aspects will focus on how folks should behave while recreating in bear country, he said. This will include campsite selection, food preparation and various other topics geared at minimizing the chances of human/bear encounters. He’ll show visitors how to minimize their injuries in case they should ever be attacked by a bear in the wild.
Dispelling the widely-varying myths about bears is also part of his talks. “I try to reach a balance of letting people know what these animals are. They’re not teddy bears, and they’re not blood-thirsty man-eaters. They’re just wild animals to be appreciated for what they are.”
The Adventure’s opening has been delayed by the rainfall this spring and summer. It will now open in two phases: the first is the bear quarters, which includes a pool area, and viewing stand. Next spring, the bear enclosure will open into a two-acre natural habitat. The Grizzly Adventure and Circle S Ranch are served electrically by Decatur County REMC.
“What folks can initially expect is to view grizzlies safely, and at close range,” Watson noted, while he’s with them in their enclosure. “During this ‘settling in’ period, I will be constantly interacting with the bears while answering questions presented by park visitors.”
The Greensburg Grizzly Adventure and the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City are the only two places to see brown bears in Indiana, Watson said. (He actually hauled the two cubs to the zoo from Montana.)
The Adventure came about when Greensburg business owners Jim and Theresa Stapp began looking to add a bear to the wide variety of animals on their 32-acre Circle S Ranch they opened in 2001. The non-profit ranch, next door to their company, Custom Conveyor, allows local youth groups and schools an opportunity to learn firsthand about farm and exotic animals they don’t normally get a chance to see.
The federal animal inspector for the Stapps is also the inspector for J&L Bruins, the company Watson runs with his wife, Leanne, from their rural Owen County home. He asked Watson if he would help the Stapps lay out a bear enclosure. The Grizzly Adventure partnership between the Stapps and the Watsons evolved from there.
Raising bears
Along with the opening of the Adventure, August 2008 also marks the 20th anniversary of Watson’s first venture into raising brown bears. The 43-year-old Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC consumer began raising and training bears in August of 1988, pursuing an interest he’d had ever since he was a boy growing up in Bedford, Ind. He received a federal license and started raising his first bear. At first it was just a hobby that soon took on a new dimension.
He said there’s no book on training grizzlies. He learned from other bear handlers and animal trainers, picking up bits of information on animal behavior from even observing dog trainers. Over the years, as the daily caregiver and trainer, his education has never stopped. He’s crafted the special relationship he has with his bears into a successful — and somewhat unique and offbeat — international business.
“I don’t ecourage people to get them as pets, but I didn’t know what I was doing when I started so I’m not some arrogant, self-righteous animal handler saying that I’m Tarzan or I’m Dr. Dolittle. It’s just something I started doing 20 years ago, stuck with it and enjoy it,” he said.
Watson said people will sometimes come up and tell him at the sport show seminars about bear safety he gives around the country that they’d like to have a bear. He quickly notes the full-time commitment they require. He said bears don’t understand holidays or vacations, he said. They require constant hands-on attention. And hiring someone to come in and babysit can be tricky.
“They are what they are,” said Watson. “They’re dangerous animals. You just have to remember what they are. Try not to make a dog out of them because it will never happen. I learned very quickly they don’t make good pets because they’re always wild.”
The Watsons keep their bears in multi-stage fence-enclosed compound near their home on a wooded ridgetop near Freeman, Ind. Along with Leanne, Watson also receives help with the bears from friend and Owen County resident Dan Schulz and others.
J&L Bruins includes the five brown bears. The four adults are Alaskan brown bears. Chuck, the cub, Watson believes is a silver-tipped grizzly.
He said “grizzly” is often a generic word used to describe members of the brown bear species, Ursus arctos. Various subspecies of brown bears can be found all around the world, most notably in the United States, especially Alaska; Canada; Russia; and Finland. A DNA test is required to separate actual differences between Alaskan Kodiak bears, the largest bears in the world that can weigh-in as much as 1,200 to 1,500 pounds, and brown bears found in the western interior states, like the silver-tipped grizzly, Watson said. But they all have the common hump around the shoulders and the rounded ears and features folks so often like to associate with a teddy bear.
The four adults Watson owns, three males — Brody, Bruno and Buck — and one female — Marty — came as cubs from the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, Wash. The drive-through farm was associated with the Disney Studios when Disney was making its series of animal films in the 1950s and 1960s.
Chuck was given to Watson earlier this year. The grizzly cub’s owner was a man in South Carolina. He died of a sudden heart attack before he ever had a chance to see the cub, and Chuck was sent temporarily to an animal shelter in North Carolina. Watson was offered Chuck and picked him up, he said. He said he probably would not have accepted the cub if not for the Grizzly Adventure. He knew he would be able to spend more bonding time with Chuck — and his other four bears — now that he would be spending so much more time at a single place with all of them.
Of the five bears, 13-year-old Brody has been the star. He’s traveled the country with Watson the most to do the outdoor shows. Brody has a large number of screen, TV and commercial credits including:
• “The Today Show,”
• “Good Morning America,”
• “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,”
• “Walker, Texas Ranger,”
• “Li’l River Rats” feature film,
• commercials for Energizer batteries and Rice Krispie Treats,
• the July 2001 National Geographic cover,
• Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin’s Quest,
• Animal Planet’s Amazing Animal Videos,
• Animal Planet's Planet’s Funniest Animals.
They have visited Muhammed Ali’s home.
Two film projects included both Watson and Brody.
Filmed in Virginia in October of 2006, “Grizzly Park” was a horror film about eight troubled young adults sentenced to community service at a remote California state park. Soon after arriving, they are terrorized by — you guessed it — a killer grizzly. Brody played the serial-killing beast while Watson played an equally scary role as a serial-killer. The film was released directly to DVD earlier this year.
In a small role in 1999, Watson protrayed the real James “Grizzly” Adams in the A&E TV miniseries, “P.T. Barnum,” in 1999. Actor Beau Bridges portrayed the famed title character.
It was almost type-casting for Watson, who sports a long beard and hair, in playing the famed mountainman who befriended grizzlies in the mid-1800s. Adams late in his life was a performer and partner in Barnum’s shows.
One of Adams’ favorite activities — wrestling his bear “General Fremont” — led to his premature death. During several of their playful tussles, the bear struck Adams in the head. The reopening of the head wounds led to a fatal infection; Adams died at around age 53 in 1860.
While Watson interacts closely with the bears he’s nurtured and raised, even being photographed with his face in Brody’s mouth, he realizes the potential for danger and knows the signs when his bears are becoming agitated with something. He noted animal attacks have made big news lately — the mauling of Las Vegas performer Roy Horn by one of his cats, the death of Steve Irwin from the stingray barb in the heart, the deaths of grizzly bear enthusiasts Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard. He said he hopes to dispel the myths about these animals at the Grizzly Adventure.
“I think different television productions display them as a family pet. I’ve got dogs and I’ve got bears and I’ve never confused them. I’ve never confused a grizzly bear with a German shephard at my house. They’re two totally different animals.”
Sharing the adventure
 On a recent sunny morning, he spent time bonding with Chuck in a grassy enclosure bounded by electrical fencing on a sloping hillside near his home. Watson would pick the cub up, like a giant teddy bear, and roll him over. He’d lay on the ground and let the cub come up and hug him and press on his shoulders. But even at 6-months, Chuck has the power and tools to do serious harm. And Watson was quick to nip any rough play in the bud.
He said bears in the wild have primarily a vegetarian diet, but Chuck thinks everything, including cars and rocks, has a creamy filling he’d like to get at. And, he said, if the 90-pound cub really became agitated, which he would immediately spot, it would quickly lose that teddy bear image. An adult man would have a hard time handling the angry young bear.
The play he does with Chuck now will have to stop once Chuck becomes a little bigger, he said, but for now it’s a bonding opportunity.
That bonding is all brought together for visitors at the Greensburg Grizzly Adventure.
“There’s so much going into this,” he said. “This is the culmination of my 20 years working with bears.”
He said over that time he’s had the “perfect job” — interacting with his bears and sharing them with people. “But if I can do that without the traveling, it even gets better.”
With the opening of the Adventure at the Stapp’s Circle S Ranch, it’s just gotten better for Watson. And it’s just gotten better for Hoosiers interested in seeing these massive and beautiful animals in person in a safe environment.
 “I hope people are interested enough in wanting to see these animals and learn about them and see me interacting with them,” Watson said. “It’ll be an interesting place for people to go.”
Brody, a 13-year-old Kodiak, looks a little more intimidating than the cub.
Photo submitted by Jeff Watson.
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 7/25/2008
Number of Views: 719
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