A Bear Named Trouble (8 page)

When the zoo personnel captured him at last, a television reporter and a ranger from the Fish and Game department were waiting outside. If Trouble had managed to emerge from the zoo before the curator could dart him, he would have been killed as a nuisance bear.

It is true, too, that Trouble was taken to Minnesota in the hold of a passenger plane, a service donated by Northwest Airlines, and that 40,000 pounds of fresh salmon accompanied him on the journey.

And the young bear did, indeed, arrive at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth to a band playing "Ya Got Trouble."

It is unusual to bring mature animals from the wild into a zoo, but the Lake Superior Zoo
took a chance on Trouble to keep him from being put down. In return, he has adapted very well to his life there. Sometimes he even taps on the glass to get visitors' attention.

The already resident female grizzly, named Phoebe, started off as something of a challenge for Trouble. The first time the two bears were put in the display area together she trounced him pretty thoroughly. They were then separated for a long time but now are back together. At this writing, Phoebe remains dominant, because she is still bigger, but the two have become easy with one another. Trouble, at last, has what he was searching for ... a companion.

The one aspect of Trouble's story as it is told here that is completely fictional is Jonathan and his family. I wanted to follow Trouble's journey through a child's eyes, so I created a boy who dreams his way inside animals.

My special thanks to Katie Larson, education director at the Alaska Zoo, Pat Lampi,
curator at the Alaska Zoo, and Mike Janis, director of the Lake Superior Zoo, for their generous help when I was gathering information for this book.

Discovering and writing Trouble's story has been a special privilege.