Bears

Ideas related to high school, college, career, and entrepreneurship

Love bears? Keep scrolling down for what you may not know exists about your special area of interest. You can technically apply this same level of thinking to any animal.

The Polar Plunge

Every January 1st many cities do a Polar Plunge where people start the new year running into cold water to start their year fresh.

So maybe the polar bear plunge on New Year wasn’t what you were expecting and it left you wanting to see some real bears in action. This is a common occurrence in life. As kids we conjure up a dream, I want to be a dress designer for Barbie, I want to make video games like Fortnite, I want to play football for the Packers, but life happens and we end up working at Walmart selling knock off Barbie clothes, trying to attach antitheft devices to video games, and watching the Superbowl from our phone during a lunch break.

Being Deliberate: Why Niching Increases Job Options

How do we be more deliberate? Choose a niche not a job. Choosing a niche gives you ways to touch your interest in ways you may not even know exists but if you start to see, in this case, bears everywhere, job ideas start to spawn out of nowhere and you get to mix and match other skills and interests you have to create opportunities. Yes some ideas won’t earn enough to live off of and may be side hustles, some may require a move, some may offer opportunities few and far between but the more you can start to wear the career vision of “bears” the more you will discover. People often think my niche approach limits job ideas but I think it expands it and increases positive connotation of work. I am pretty sure no one has ever made a career post about jobs with bears, but if you now a bear lover please forward this, even if it helps one person rethink niche jobs, it was worth my day of curating ideas. This strategy can be applied to any animal……..

Bear + Research

If you want to major in things like wildlife biology it is so important to figure out what your professors are researching because if you go somewhere with a great program and the intentions of wanting to apply your studies to bears, you can…..but it is easier when your faculty love bears too and are already researching them. Otherwise you may get stuck studying mackerel, invasive moths, sage brush, or water pollution.

• University of Montana Wildlife Biology program: grizzly bears

• University of Alaska Fairbanks: brown bears and polar bears.

• Trent University: Black Bears

• University of Alberta Deroacher Lab: Polar Bears

• Old Dominion University Dr John Witman: Polar Bears

• University of Washington Polar Science Center: Polar Bears

Research does lead to policy changes, funding, education, and even product development, not just taking care of bears in zoos or teaching. More about bear research can be found at the IBS (International Association for Bear Research and Management).

Bears + Zoos/ Rescues

If your lifelong dream is to work at a zoo or rescue, but you love bears, at least make sure they have them, and better yet, try to go to school near one of them, intern there, and work with professionals who have funding to do research with them. Again, being deliberate ensures you don’t become a goat expert, monkey keeper, or presenter about snakes if you wanted to end up with bears.

•Bear Country USA: Grizzlies and Black Bears

• Bear Country USA: Grizzlies and Black Bears

• North American Bear Center: Black Bear

• Assininoine Park Zoo: Polar Bear

• Toledo Zoo and Aquarium: Polar Bear

• Sait Louis Zoo: Polar Bear

• Pittsburg Zoo and Aquarium: Polar Bear

• Henry Villlas Zoo: Polar Bears

• San Francisco Zoo: Black Bears

• Tulsa Zoo: Grizzy Bears

• Polar Bear International: Polar Bears

• Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Care: Sun Bears

• Appalachian Bear Rescue: Black Bear

There are a lot of organizations throughout the US that raise funds, awareness, give input on policy, work on conservation, provide education, research, etc. related to bears. A variety of roles exist from fundraising to advocacy to research to event marketing. Here are some of the largest. These may be good places to volunteer for, intern at, or eventually work at. Remember these kinds of places even hire jobs like clerical, accounting, graphic design, legal, etc. You don’t have to have a biology background.

• Appalachian Bear Rescue

• Idaho Black Bear Rehab

• Bear With Us

• Great Bear Foundation

• Bear Trust International

• Vital Ground Foundation

• Friends of the North Cascades Grizzly Bear

• Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

• Free the Bears

• Snowden Wildlife Sanctuary Black Bear Rehab

• North American Bear Center

Bears + Animatronics/ Realistic Costumes

Ever been to a theme park and wondered who made all the animated bears? Wonder if they are using real trained bears or realistic suits to film movies? If you love things like robotics, sculpting, costuming, fur texturing, wigs, makeup, design, etc. Worldwide companies like those below are known for creating many of our favorite characters and have jobs in all stages of manufacturing as well as other jobs associated with any business, like legal, hr, accounting, customer service, sales, logistics, etc.

Garner and Holt Productions has made a lot of animatronic animals, including the bears on the Roaring rapids ride in Disney California Adventure.

Sally Dark Rides made the country bears from Disneyland.

Animatronic Bear Studios Inc makes these realistic bear suits that people can wear for movies….yea people are no longer training real bears, this is a suit. Pretty realistic.

Creature Technology made these animatronics.

Animate Factory sells these large animated statues people can buy for decor.

Red Tiger makes these realistic zoo animatronics for displays.

Bears+ Toys

While I have yet to meet a high school student say they want to go to college to make toys, you can. Places like the schools below offer classes in toy design.

• OTIS

• FIT

If you want to learn on your own, you might check out workshops on making toy bears on

• Skill share

• Bare Cub Designs

• Teddy Bear Academy

Skullpanda is the new collectable keychains in blindboxes and are sold by Popmart, what a great place to work while in high school instead of McDonalds or Five and Below if you love Bears. You will just have to set a budget from your check and not use your employee discount too liberally to collect all these cuties. Once at the company start inquiring about how to work your way up or get jobs in other departments at corporate.

Similarly, Build a Bear is another fun job in high school or college. And as mentioned above, you can start to inquire about ways to get to corporate and find a host of jobs related to your interests.

Here are other toy companies specific to bears or that also make bears you may want to check out and start watching jobs at so you know what skills you might need.

• Steiff Bears

• Ty Inc

• Gund

• Merrythought

• Boydes

• Charlie Bears

• Teddy Hermann

• Bukowski Bears

• Manhattan Toy

• The Bear Factory

• Bears for Humanity

• Line Friends

• Softplushtoy (makes a lot of Disney)

• Shanghai Worldmax Toy (makes a lot of Disney)

• Misail Toys (makes a lot of Disney)

• Medicom Toy (Be@Brick)

• Funko

• Fluffy House

• Hacipupu

A hidden job market may be repairing bears. Getting a job at one of these places or asking to be an apprentice to learn the craft could be for you if you want to restore antique bears or repair childhood bears. I know my daughter’s Koala needs to visit a repair hospital soon but finding something somewhat local is a challenge and we don’t want to send her far away in case she gets lost.

• Teddy Bear repair by Mar-ke Mohair

• Soft Toy and Teddy Bear Hospital

• Stitch and Rescue Plus Toy Revival

• Bygone Bears

• Atlanta Doll Clinic

• The Teddy Bear Nurse

• Winey Bears

• Two Bears Repair

• Davy Bears- Teddy Bear Hospital

Teddy Bear and Toy Museums may also hire people to do restoration, displays, appraisals, tours, curation, acquisitions, and more. Here are some around the world to watch jobs at or volunteer with.

• Teddy Bear Museum at Den of Marbletown

• Dorset Teddy Bear Museum

• Susan Quinlan Doll and Teddy Bear Museum and Library

• Toy Worlds Museum Basel

• Soltau Toy Museum

Bears + Safety

Some research is used to help create protocols, policies, and best practices for staying safe around bears. Below are a few places researching bear behavior that may be worth looking at if this is of interest.

• Stephen Herro from University of Calvary has done research on bear behavior and attacks

• Cady Sartini from Wisconsin Black Bear Project at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point has been looking at behavior and management.

Companies like those below create products to keep people safe around bears and could be places to look for employment if you have innovative ideas for product development or even education campaigns that could explain why people need these products and take you on sales trips to visit places bears exist.

• SABRE

• SOG

• BearVault

• Ursack

• Counter Assult

• Bear Aware

• Kodiak Wildlife Products

• No Fed Bear

Companies can earn certification from Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) certifying their products meet strict standards needed to keep bears from accessing food. Parks often require visitors use IGBC certified products.

Bears + Woodworking

If you have ever visited mountainous tourist towns they often have chainsaw carved bears dotting the town welcoming you to the area. If you love woodworking, think you would enjoy learning to sculpt with chainsaws, this could turn into a fun side hustle or full time income as these sell for a pretty penny. Here are some programs that offer training, don’t try this at home without proper instruction.

• Carving Camp in Spokane

• George Kenny’s Chainsaw Carving SChool in Washington

• Wisconsin School of Chainsaw Carving

Bears + Sports

Working for a professional sports team with a bear mascot could be fun:

• Chicago Bears (NFL)

• Memphis Grizzlies (NBA)

• Boston Bruins (NHL)

• Hershey Bears (AHL)

You don’t have to be the mascot but if you are a graphic designer, you could enjoy creating licensed merch or working with any brand that holds a license to create merch.

Bears+ Hunting

I try to cover a variety of interests even if it is in conflict with other career ideas mentioned. So above you will see conservation of bears and now I am talking about hunting bears. My role is to remain unbiased and present all sides of the career spectrum.

If you are interested in living in bear country and taking people bear hunting, below are places that run expeditions to hunt bears you may want to check out and learn more about licensing and tags and guiding. Taxidermy is another side hustle or career to explore.

• Rosser Outfitters

• Ultimate Alaskan Adventures

• Crazy Creek Outfitters

• Cascade Mountain Outfitters

• Canada also provides black bear and polar bear hunts.

Bears + Entrepreneurship

Your love of bears can extend into side hustles or even full time income here are some ideas.

• Get a bear mascot suit and make appearances at birthday parties or rent out bear suits for plays, parties, Halloween, etc.

• Sew baby themed bear hats and costumes for pictures

• Draw bears digitally and turn them into patterns to sell to fabric companies

• Sew memory bears out of loved ones shirts, ties, etc.

• Specialize in bear tattoos

• Create bear themed bumper stickers and water bottle stickers and magnets for tourist towns in the mountains to sell with their town name

• Take children’s toy bears on vacation, take pictures, and send postcards. Unagi is one company that does this.

Final Thoughts

However you decide to work with bears the options are endless, I hope these ideas get you started as you explore your interest.

Like Animals in general?

Visit my past Substack posts for more ideas. Some of the resources are canva files, some are articles, and some are slide decks about college degrees while others are about jobs with video links.

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What do you think about this new 2026 Substack Format? Love it or hate it? What topics do you want to see covered in January?