The WildLife: A Zookeeper’s Bear Adventures, Else Poulsen, Part I

Else Poulsen, bear expert and author of the book SMILING BEARS, talks about her adventures as a zookeeper and her work uncovering the emotional lives of bears in this first of two-part interview. She reveals to “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme what makes these creatures so special – something she’s learned from years of raising bears, nursing bears back to health, comforting bears, communicating with bears, teaching bears, and learning from bears. Else Poulsen has worked at the Calgary and Detroit zoos and is known internationally for her captive bear husbandry and rehabilitation. In 2000 she won the Zookeeper Research Excellence Award from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s Bear Taxon Advisory Group. She currently lives in southern Ontario, Canada and works as an animal management consultant for zoos, sanctuaries, wildlife rehabilitators, and other animal welfare groups. She’s written about her experiences in an engaging narrative non-fiction book, SMILING BEARS: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears, which has been short listed for the Edna Staebler Literary Award for Creative Non-Fiction . This episode of “The WildLife” aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on September 20, 2010. (Part II aired September 27, 2010.)