(Note - this is a video I took last year, pond is still frozen over).

The big question everyone has been having now is about Leo. I am not going to lie to you. Leo is very depressed. He knows that Jimbo is gone, but he still walks around looking, pacing, and sniffing Susan and Jim’s clothes. It has made a sad situation even more sad seeing how lost and bereft he is.

Jimbo and Leo used to live with many other bears but over the years all have passed on except for him. He used to always sleep cuddled next to Jimbo and now he stares at their sleeping area and is reluctant to even lay there alone.

Matching him with a new bear is a really difficult, frightening and troublesome issue. On one hand we don’t want him to live alone. He enjoys the company of other bears. But he could not be matched with a new bear “cub” - that would not work. He likely couldn’t be put with any MALE bear - that would probably also not work.

So Jim and Susan are considering trying Sonya with him. Sonya is our most level-headed and welcoming bear. We think her attitude and intelligence and her easy going nature might be a very good match for Leo. She might really, really enjoy being an “only bear” with Leo and she was very quick to make friends with Frankie when he was introduced into that group.

There is a big size difference between the two of them though and introducing them will take a lot of time to assure their safety. It is an extremely difficult and stressful decision to make.

They do live right next to each other though and have always been able to interact through the inside den area and outside fence so they are very familiar with each other - their whole lives spent side by side - and each other’s smells and such.

So at this point it is all still a thought process. We want to do what is best and safe for all the bears here and this is an extremely complicated issue.

But it is one that Susan and Jim are thinking about a great deal. We don’t know yet what we will do. For now we are trying to help Leo adjust to his loss and his grief. He would have to be in a better frame of mind before anything at all could be attempted.

At this stage - all of this is just knocking around in our heads and it may be that something entirely different will be done. But rest assured we are also thinking hard about all of this and hope to work out a good solution.

So thank you all for also immediately being concerned about Leo. We love you guys and how connected you are. Thanks for sharing all of this with us.

Some of you have asked what you can send Leo...he loves toys (would have to be from wildlifetoybox.com - only ones that can stand up to bear play), honey, unsalted peanuts, or any of the treats on our amazon wishlist he likes...thanks for caring.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQeddFNN5Cg