San Francisco Zoo unveils new bear habitat

Here are a few local stories related to the Bay Area heat wave. And bears.

Sonoma County has ordered water rationing for residents.

Cal Fire is making fire awareness maps available to the public for the first time. Hopefully this will spread brush fire awareness and help homeowners take steps to protect their homes. You can look up your area by county or address.

The San Francisco Zoo unveils it's new bear habitat, "Hearst Grizzly Gulch". This particular press release doesn't say anything further about the Hearst name, but I'm assuming the Hearst Foundation had something to do with funding the Grizzly Gulch.

Further down the zoo's press release web page, a different entry explains the Hearst association:

"[The bear] Monarch's affiliation with the San Francisco Zoo began in 1889 when San Francisco Examiner media magnate, William Randolph Hearst, engaged one of his reporters, Allen Kelly, in a heated debate over whether grizzlies still existed in California. Hearst ended the argument by challenging Kelly to go out and find one. Photographic proof would not suffice; Kelly had to bring the animal back alive. After five months in the mountains of Ventura County, Kelly and the Examiner party lured an enormous grizzly into a catch pen baited with honey and mutton. A crowd of 20,000 were waiting at the Townsend Street station to greet the triumphant Kelly and his California grizzly."

Yanking a bear out of its habitat to settle a dispute is unbecoming to modern sensibilities; I suppose it was a stunt to sell more newspapers.

Getting back to the bear habitat story: they've included a pool containing live fish for the bears to catch. Fantastic.

Oh, and there's also an "herb garden". Bears appreciate good herbs.

Who knew?

Update: There's a MySpace page for Hearst Grizzly Gulch, with further information on the Hearst Corporation's involvement.