Inside a learning center surrounded by real bear habitat, kids learned all kinds of lessons from a fake bear.
"It looks like he's getting ready for a picnic," said 7-year-old Seth Vitzthum.
Vitzthum and a crowd of kids attended Wondering About Wildlife near Rattlesnake Lake, an event co-hosted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Seattle Public Utilities.
They got to meet Karelian bear dog, Coulter, and learn how he and his K9 comrades reduce conflict between humans and bears as well as cougars.
"Before I had Colter, I had to kill 10-12 bears a year needlessly because people would leave garbage and bird feeders out," WDFW Officer Nick Jorg told the kids.
In another room, kids got to check out owl pellets under a microscope.
"You can see what animal the owl just ate."
Isaac Adams is checking owl pellets.
"I think this is a rodent skull and it's really cool," he said.
Adams already knows a lot about wildlife even hopes to monitor species when he grows up.
"Like put some little tags on them. There are numbers on the tags, and you can see how many are still on there or put a tracking device on their ear and track how many are disappearing or how many there are," he said. "Nature's really fascinating, and people still don't know some things about nature."
