BILLINGS, Mont. — Looking healthier but still skittish from their wild upbringing, three orphaned grizzly bears that took part in a fatal campground rampage outside Yellowstone National Park made their public debut Friday at a Montana zoo.
A dozen preschoolers watched as the young bears — nicknamed Dolly, Loulou and Koda — nosed around a 2-acre outdoor compound surrounded by high-voltage electric fencing.
Dolly and Loulou eventually inched close enough to get a good look at the children. But Koda, described by his ZooMontana keepers as “the reticent one,” kept his distance.
Wildlife officials euthanized the bears’ mother after she led them on a late-night attack that left a Michigan man dead and two others injured.
Chris Servheen with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the bears’ previous behavior was “irrelevant” in a zoo setting.
A witness to the attacks said Friday that he agreed with the young bears’ placement in a zoo. Roland Flemming of Alamosa said the 2-year-old bears “deserved a chance.”
“Since it was my daughter’s boyfriend that got bit, you would think I would say they ought to have been put down,” Flemming said. “But they wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for the mama.”
