I visited the zoo in 2018 and here is my review from that summer:
When I enter privately-owned, home-made zoos like Oswald’s Bear Ranch (Newberry, northern Michigan) there is no admission booth, no ticket, no wristband or hand stamp, no receipt and nothing but cold hard cash and a nod in the direction of the parking lot. After handing over $10, I parked and immediately saw a long lineup of folks willing to pay another $10 to pose with some American Black Bear cubs. That is not a good impression, as the cubs live in a 'cement-and-chainlink' cage and are carefully enticed with spoonfuls of honey to be held by eager tourists. The owner is making money hand-over-fist with that scheme and it is an ugly sight.
The good news is that elsewhere things were better, with 4 large habitats on the property and a grand total of exactly 37 American Black Bears are in residence. There is a yearling enclosure, another for big males, one for females and then a fourth that was not labeled. Bears are everywhere, with some unfortunately pacing by the front of their exhibit and waiting to be fed. Many visitors were buying food and the only option was a bag of apples for the hungry mouths. The exhibits are each at least a couple of acres in size, and in the two largest ones (probably several acres) it was wonderful to see some natural behaviours and even some bears up in trees! This facility is a bit of an enigma as the first impression was a terrible one but the bears all appear to be healthy and they have a lot of space to live out their lives. It would be interesting to know how the ranch maintains all those bears in terms of diet and veterinary treatments as rounding up a sick bear in a multi-acre exhibit with many other bears all around must be a tricky proposition.
