A Montreal Black Bear Woke Up For Spring & Joyfully Tumbled In The Snow (VIDEO)
Genie the black bear couldn't get enough of the snow at the Ecomuseum Zoo.
Montreal Ecomuseum Zoo black bear Genie waking from hibernation and playing in the snow.
As temperatures slowly climb, Montrealers are starting to peek their winter-weary heads out of their rank cavern-like apartments for what might be the first time in months. They're joined by Genie, the Ecomuseum Zoo's black bear, who emerged from hibernation on March 18.
A video posted to Facebook shows Genie prancing out of her den with an undeniable spring in her step. She heads for a snow-covered knoll and splays her limbs across the still-frozen ground, round belly greeting the sky.
"Spring has sprung!" the museum wrote alongside the post. "Genie came out of hibernation this morning and she was VERY excited to play in the snow!"
She tumbles on the ground for a solid minute, only briefly distracted by an alluring log before once again frolicking through her enclosure.
"My life consists of eating and fattening up for a winter spent in my den," Genie ("Genie") says on the zoo website. "For me, eating is an obsession."
"I sleep all winter but I certainly come out of my torpor."
The Ecomuseum Zoo cares for local animals that can't return to the wild. According to its website, some animals are unable to "survive in their natural environment" due to injuries or because they were "born under human care."
Genie's groggy emergence from hibernation has become a bit of an event.
The zoo's March 18 Facebook post had over 900 reactions and dozens of comments at the time of writing.
In 2021, a video of Genie offered some hope to Montrealers still in the midst of a provincewide semi-lockdown.
