DUNGENESS — Bella David was a little hesitant about petting the black bundle of fur in her father’s arms.
Such prudence is wise, since the American black bear cub, who flew from Minnesota last month to the Olympic Game Farm north of Sequim, has longer claws and sharper teeth than your average plush teddy bear.
On Friday, Sean David of Sequim brought 2-year-old Bella to meet her match: Kitty, a nine-week-old American black bear who’s the first baby brought to the farm in 10 years.
Watching her fuss and wobble on uncertain paws, animal caregiver and trainer Jennifer Lackie said Kitty is the equivalent to a 2-year-old human child.
She started walking a couple of weeks ago, and “had to learn which foot to put where,” Lackie added.
Friday morning, children and parents scurried across the 84-acre game farm to coo over Kitty, who seemed to care only about where her next bottle was coming from.
“She’s trying to suck on my neck,” said Bob Beebe, general manager of the farm, before handing Kitty over to Lackie.
With a raspy whine, the 12-pound cub wrapped her forelegs around Lackie’s arm, and, with steady slurping, sucked from a bottle of milk-replacement formula.
She’s a needy baby and gets mad quickly; “every day, she’s changing,” said Lackie, who flew to Albert Lea, Minn., to pick up Kitty from a bear breeder there.
Nickname
The cub is named after Catherine Beebe, cofounder of the Olympic Game Farm and grandmother to Bob Beebe. While growing up in Nooksack, Catherine, now 86, was nicknamed Kitty.
The game farm is home to hundreds of animals, from elk and zebras to tigers, a rhinoceros and 18 other black and Kodiak bears.
Once a supplier of animals for Disney movies and other productions, the farm is one of the most popular tourist attractions on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Its beasts haven’t appeared in films or commercials lately; the last time a bear acted in a show was 10 years ago when one appeared in a Seattle opera, Bob Beebe said.
He added that Kitty will be trained to perform for game farm visitors, and perhaps in movies or commercials. Since his other black bears are past breeding age, Beebe said, the game farm needed to bring in a youngster.
Kitty cost $500, he said, plus the expenses of flying her and Lackie here from Minnesota.
Beebe has been taking the cub into town when he runs errands; people tend to melt when they see her.
Kitty eats and drinks about 60 ounces of milk replacement, applesauce and baby cereal per day, Lackie added. She’ll introduce the cub to meat soon.
Beebe and his staff are building a pen for when Kitty grows larger. It’ll have stumps to climb on and be almost 1,000 square feet in size, he said.
As Kitty grows up, “she’ll tame down quite a bit. She won’t be as clingy.”
That’s probably a good thing. Though the black bear is the smallest of the three bear species in North America, an adult female can weigh 300 pounds.
In Washington state, an estimated 25,000 black bears live in the wild. They’re powerful swimmers and tree-climbers and can run up to 30 miles per hour.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
