A video of a man hugging a 1,500-pound grizzly named Jimbo has captured the Internet's attention, but who is 59-year-old Jim Kowalczik, who's seen cuddling up with the massive bruin?
Kowalczik, a retired correctional officer, started the nonprofit Orphaned Wildlife Center last year with his wife Susan, The New York Times reported. The 100-acre facility is located two hours north of New York City and houses 11 bears, as well as horses, deer and other animals. It was set up as a rehabilitation center for animals that can later be released back into the wild, but animals that become habituated to humans -- like Jimbo -- wind up living at the center since they are unable to survive in the wild.
"Our primary purpose is to release these animals into the wild," Kerry Clair, a director for the nonprofit, told The New York Times. "We only keep them if there's some problem."
Jimbo is now 22 years old and stands 9 feet tall, and was rescued as an injured cub, the Times reports.
The article brings up the inevitable comparison to Timothy Treadwell, who was killed -- along with his girlfriend -- by a grizzly in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve in 2003 after spending summers among the bears there for years.
Clair says what the center staff does is different than what Treadwell was attempting, which she compared to "trying to forge a relationship with a pack of wolves."
Read the full story at The New York Times.
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