The once-extinct plains grizzly bear in central Alberta has made a big splash in the region. And while the legendary bruin now thrilling guests at Innisfail’s Discovery Wildlife Park may not be the typical menacing-looking beast locked up in a zoo enclosure, the giant creature is still destined like no other bear to become a must-see attraction for tourists. The new pride of Innisfail is a mechanical creation 14 years in the making by park owner Doug Bos, who established the local 90-acre zoo in 2002 after a 12-year stint in Clive.
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Bos originally came up with the idea of having a huge, animated creature — one in constant motion to catch the eyes of tourists, but not necessarily a grizzly.
“The original design was going to be a giraffe, and then it became a bear,” Bos said.
His brother Bert was the driving force in designing the animated, steel grizzly, which stands 23 feet when fully erect and 12 feet at the shoulder when lowered. “So Bert designed a bear to work on this oilfield pumpjack and made a scale model of it. It turned out incredible,” said Bos.
Bos had Gerald Graham from Lacombe construct the bear before it was moved to Innisfail. Hauling the 10,500-lb. grizzly, which cost an estimated $50,000 to build, from Lacombe to Innisfail was an obvious problem, but Andy’s Oilfield Hauling immediately seized the opportunity.
“I think it was unique for me to do this. It is something I have never done before, lifting a mechanical bear in place,” said Don Stubbe, a senior crane operator with the company. “It is part of the oilpatch too because it is a pumpjack and we do a lot of pumpjacks, and this was a unique one.
“It is a big bear and I think it is going to be an icon,” he said. “It’s going to be something people can see from the highway, and very attractive for this wildlife park.”
That is exactly what Bos has in mind for the grizzly; a lot of social media promotion, giving the Guinness World Records a call for having the planet’s biggest, animated bear, and having it listed as the province’s 35th icon with the Alberta Community Icon program. If successful, Bos’s big, animated grizzly will join such notable icons as Barrhead’s Great Blue Heron, Edson’s Eddie the Squirrel, Beaverlodge’s Giant Beaver sculpture, Glendon’s Giant Pyrogy, the World’s Largest Bee in Falher and the Giant Sausage replica in Mundare.
Bos’s museum already has three “live” grizzlies that have been featured in a score of movies and commercials. He sincerely believes his bear will quickly put Innisfail on the map as a priority must-see place for tourists to visit in the summer. “We are going to dub Innisfail as the bear capital of the world. Nobody else is claiming that title so we may as well,” he said.
