kilham bear center

We are so happy to introduce you to Ethan Kilham of New Hampshire, United States of America! He leads a busy life assisting in the rehabilitation of orphaned black bear cubs, and took some time recently to chat with Phonetic Planet about his nature-based experiences, past and present.

Have you always lived in New Hampshire, Ethan? We’d love to hear a little about the natural landscape that surrounds you there.

The Kilham Bear Center, where I act as caregiver, is located in the middle of New Hampshire on the Connecticut River. I have lived here most of my life save for my college years which I spent in New York City and a time after that where I went west to Montana. My home town of Lyme, NH is nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, that weathered spine of the east United States, whose worn mountains still hint at the towering peaks they once were before time and glaciers ground them away. The brooks and rivers that carried away their pieces are still here; clear, cold waters running through forests of change. The poplar, maple, oak, and birch of the present have grown up amidst the stonewalls and cellar holes of 19th Century sheep farmers and their pastures. Along the boundaries of these walls you can still find giant oaks and beech that hint at the old growth forests that the Abenaki once knew and called home. In a wet year like this one the forest is much like a temperate rainforest full of running water, lush greens, mushrooms, and vibrant flowers. The autumn brings a forest canopy set aglow in shades of red, orange, yellow, purple, and bronze. The winters can be stark and bared yet softened by blankets of snow.

Have you always felt connected to the natural world? Is there a special person who helped to nurture your love of animals?

I am part of the natural world so I have never felt the need to make the distinction of connection. I come from a family full of individuals who are interested in the plants and animals around them. My grandfather Lawrence Kilham was an avid amateur ornithologist who spent many hours in the company of his wife Jane watching birds and how they behave. His children, my father and his siblings Ben and Phoebe along with Ben’s wife Debbie, were integral to the foundation of the Kilham Bear Center and what we do now. I would say animals are the gateway to loving animals. The world is full of an unfathomable number of creatures like black bears who encompass a breadth of intelligence that yields endless wonder. The more you can observe animals’ individual and collective complexities, the more interwoven it all becomes.

If you enjoyed spending time outdoors as a child, can you please tell us about some of the ways in which you played and explored the area in which you lived. You can also mention special places by name, and tell us about any favorite adventure you experienced outdoors as a child.

I spent parts of my childhood constructing dirt forts in the mud for plastic soldiers. I remember spending hours behind my grandmother’s house in a small boat on a pond full of algae shielded from the rest of the world by cattails. There I was king of the muck and all the fascinating creatures that lived in it: frogs, turtles, crayfish, alien worms and beetles. When I grew a little older, I took up fly fishing and would spent my time traveling the banks of Grant Brook between the village of Lyme and the Connecticut River, catching brook trout and tree limbs and grassy banks in the company of herons, muskrats, beavers and kingfishers.

When did you first become interested in bears? Do you remember your first encounter with a bear?

I grew up around bears. I was six years old when my aunts and uncle started rehabilitating black bear cubs. My first encounter with a bear was probably in 1996, at their house. That year they received three cubs named Squirty, Curly, and Boy. I would have been at one of their feedings. By the way, Squirty is still in our area today. She turned 27 this year and is surrounded by her daughters, granddaughters, and their offspring. Ben Kilham has written two books, Among the Bears and Out on a Limb, about her and her kin, and what they taught him about bear and human behavior.

Please tell us about the general bear population in New Hampshire, where your rescue organization is based.

The bear population is a healthy one. It is a population that has come back from the brink of annihilation. Those 19th Century sheep pastures destroyed the habitat of many native species including black bears. They were hunted and killed, and seen by many as monsters and vermin up until about the mid-20th Century. There were still bounties on black bears in the 1950s in this state. As the pastures turned back into forest and the habitat returned, so did the bears. New Hampshire is an interesting nexus of prime black bear habitat and a relatively dense human population. Black bears are excellent generalists so they can do quite well in proximity to humans. Of course this can cause problems as any human garbage or food source which is not conscientiously taken care of can attract a bear and cause a conflict. These conflicts are what generally lead to cubs coming to the center.

How many bears are you currently helping, Ethan? Can you tell us a little about the circumstances in which you found some of them?

Currently we are taking care of sixteen cubs. Last year we took in and eventually released 137 cubs.  They all come to us because they have been separated from their mother in some irrevocable manner. We have multiple cubs who have been hit by cars, one of which had a complete break of the femur that was surgically repaired. Sometimes a cub can be separated from its mother in a more urban setting due to the proximity to roads and human activity. They usually end up in someone’s yard, up a tree, with no safe way to reconnect with their mother. Then there are mortality events where the mother is killed either by a car or by someone who has perceived her as a threat to their person or their livelihood.

Please tell us a little about your typical day at work.

A typical day at the center is relatively domestic. As the cubs sole caregiver, my day is taken up with feeding them, cleaning up after them and making sure they feel healthy and safe. The cubs are incredibly intelligent beings who love to explore the woods in their enclosure. They love to wrestle and swim and run wild. They are considerate, discerning animals who go about their days in a peaceful, ebullient manner. Being around them makes chores not feel like chores. The days can just flow into one another.

Before we finish up, Ethan, is there a favorite book from your childhood that you can recommend to our young audience?

A favorite book from my childhood eludes me, although I certainly remember books from childhood full of bears from the Winnie the Pooh series (by A.A. Milne) to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? (by Eric Carle). There were also the Paddington books (by Michael Bond) and Corduroy (by Don Freeman) and the Berenstain Bears series (by Stan and Jan Berenstain) . Of course, Goldilocks  and the Three Bears was also enjoyed!

I think the number of children’s books featuring bears speaks to the charismatic nature and intelligence of bears. It is easy for many of us to see ourselves in the mannerisms and doings of bears. In a fitting way they are paragons of what we are striving to be and what we want our children to be: kind, gentle, intelligent, forgiving individuals attuned to the possibilities of the present.

Our sincere thanks to Ethan for providing us with such insightful answers for the purposes of this interview! It’s clear to see that he loves his life in the New Hampshire mountains. Phonetic Planet wishes to remind you that you can learn more about the Kilham Bear Center via their website www.kilhambearcenter.org  and their instagram account @kilhambearcenter.

Please note that the center is not open to the public, and that all of the bears helped by Ethan and his family are eventually released back into the wild. The Kilham Bear Center is registered as a Nonprofit organization and welcomes donations, should you wish to support them in that manner.

Note: The two books mentioned by Ethan earlier in our conversation are available here: http://www.benkilham.com//BEAR_BOOKS_AND_VIDEOS.html

All photos in this article were provided by Ethan Kilham: