UPDATE August 13, 2024 – Our grizzly bears are back in Rocky Mountain Wild, and you can visit them right away! Save the date for a weekend-long community event to celebrate the boys’ return on Sat., Aug. 31 through Mon., Sept. 2. (See details at Emmett & Digger’s Housewarming Party. Advance admission tickets are required.)
Guests will get new views of Emmett and Digger, while the bears enjoy environmental enhancements, like an expanded lower yard. The bears also have new neighbors: Benton, Baker and Baldwin — three charismatic raccoon brothers from an AZA-accredited zoo in Louisiana.
The former grizzly bear boardwalk has been removed, making way for a new pathway to visit grizzlies in their new demonstration area and their familiar pond and yard at the top of the habitat. Guests can also get a thrill by riding two huge slides fixed to the iconic fire tower in Rocky Mountain Wild.
Instead of taking the stairs and boardwalk to the bears, guests follow a beautiful out-and-back meandering sidewalk connecting from the main pathway through Asian Highlands and Rocky Mountain Wild. Guests can enjoy getting close to native trees, flowers and shrubs along the pathway.
A new training and demonstration panel in the bears’ expanded lower yard gives guests new views of Emmett and Digger. The new demo location is closer to the Zoo’s main pathways than the former demo space. Guests might notice a familiar shade structure in the space – a nod to the boardwalk that previously connected visitors to bears.
In addition to expanding their lower yard, the bears’ improved habitat features a bear-safe overnight outdoor den area to allow the boys to sleep under the stars, which they have consistently chosen to do when given the option to go outside or stay indoors overnight. This space gives the bears the choice to snuggle in their new fire-resistant shelters, which will also give staff improved access to safely provide medical care for the bears, if needed.
The overnight space, dens and two yards are designed to comfortably house two groups of bears separately, with the goal to eventually provide a home for orphaned bear cubs who need long-term care. The viewing area at the top of the habitat is still open to guests, and could be used for unscheduled demonstrations or viewing different sets of bears.
Up above the pond and stream that were added in the lower yard last year, guests might also notice a new ‘mud pit’. Their team built the bears a new dirt/sand pit on the foundation of an unused animal enclosure. With fall around the corner, the bears will have new spaces to create day beds, search for buried treasures, or just dig – a favorite activity for a grizzly.
With so many activities and places to explore in their habitat, Emmett and Digger will be finding new favorite hangouts. Guests should embrace their inner explorer, and look out for bears throughout their exhibit.
UPDATE APRIL 24, 2024: Guests Can See Grizzlies in Temporary Staycation Home at CMZoo
Our grizzly bears, Emmett and Digger, are getting updates to their habitat and viewing areas. Emmett and Digger wanted to skip the rest of construction near their habitat, so they have temporarily moved to the Asiatic bear area near the play hill, above the tapir yard. Guests can visit them right away.
How Do You Move Two Grizzly Bears?
With candy and a big crate.
Relying on trusting relationships with the grizzlies and the added appeal of candy, keepers asked the bears to walk into a big crate. After 4 days of training and lots of Kit Kats and Reese’s peanut butter cups as rewards, the bears were comfortable with their crates, and they were ready to move. Each bear loaded into a crate voluntarily, separately and one at a time. Then, we carried one 700-pound boy at a time on a forklift, wide awake! Emmett moved first, then Digger arrived.
Their temporary home, next door to beloved aging Asiatic black bear, Beezler, is a good short-term location on one condition: ‘Golden Girl’ Beezler still gets her favorite sunny nap spot.
We look forward to welcoming guests and bears back to the grizzly exhibit when it reopens soon. In the meantime, stop by to see Emmett and Digger on the left side of the Asiatic bear habitat, and Beezler on the right.
Why Did They Need to Move?
CMZoo improvements continue with grizzly bear habitat updates
The former grizzly bear boardwalk is being replaced with pathways that provide additional grizzly viewing experiences for guests in Rocky Mountain Wild. The elevator tower is being repurposed as a future play feature, with giant tube slides attached to its sides. Guests will still be able to take the stairs up and can either slide back down or enjoy the view and walk down the stairs.
Ongoing improvements to the bears’ habitat – including the recently completed waterfall in their north yard – will make it better suited to provide homes for potential orphaned cubs in need of human care.
After a couple of months of construction in Rocky Mountain Wild, construction got louder and closer to the bears. Emmett and Digger showed signs they’d rather skip the final phases of that work. So, their teams trained them to voluntarily enter and crate, and moved them to a more suitable location for the rest of the grizzly bear construction project. Emmett and Digger continue to receive daily care, enrichment, training and interactions with keepers and staff in their temporary home, and they appear to be enjoying the change of scenery and quiet, away from construction.
Watch for updates here and on our social media channels
DECEMBER 2023: 
Guests and members will soon get new views of Emmett and Digger, CMZoo’s nearly 19-year-old grizzly bears. When the project is complete, visitors will get different perspectives of the bears from ground level and from an additional guest viewing area. Ongoing improvements to the bears’ habitat – including the recently completed waterfall in their north yard – will also make it better suited to provide homes for potential orphaned cubs in need of human care.
Starting in January, the grizzly bear area in Rocky Mountain Wild will be closed while the Zoo manages these projects. The estimated reopening date is early summer 2024, and teams will be pushing themselves to meet (or beat!) that deadline. Because the vast majority of the work will occur outside of the grizzlies’ habitat, Emmett and Digger will have access to their indoor and outdoor spaces as usual. They will, of course, continue to receive daily care, enrichment, training and interactions with keepers and staff.
“One of the most noticeable changes for our guests will be the removal of the grizzly bear boardwalk,” said Dave Ruhl, CMZoo executive vice president. “We’re decommissioning the elevator and building new pathways that we believe will provide better access for our guests visiting the grizzlies. We have something really fun in mind for the future of the elevator tower.”
The elevator tower will stay in place as a future play feature, with giant tube slides attached to its sides. Guests will be able to take the stairs up, as they can now, but instead of walking to the boardwalk, they can either slide back down or enjoy the view and walk down the stairs.
The current grizzly viewing area, by the grizzlies’ pool, will stay in place. Guests will access it via a paved sidewalk and ramp similar to the sloped sidewalk from African Rift Valley to the main road. A second guest viewing area will be built at the base of the grizzlies’ north yard. The future path to grizzly viewing will start near the end of the Asian Highlands tiger bridge.
Additionally, the grizzlies will get new outdoor overnight spaces, so they can choose to sleep inside or outside. New gates and spaces in separate yards also give the Zoo the opportunity to provide homes for wild orphaned bear cubs in the future. With new access points, keepers could care for Emmett and Digger in one set of spaces and cubs in another.
“We believe these changes are going to improve both guest experiences and animal experiences,” said Ruhl. “There are no current plans to welcome cubs to the Zoo, but unfortunately, wildlife officials need to find homes for orphaned cubs nearly every year. If we can give them a second chance at life by providing a safe home for them, we will.”
CMZoo will provide updates on the grizzlies and the new-and-improved guest areas as progress continues.