An older adult female walks with three juvenile black bears in a dry grassy outdoor setting during late autumn or early spring, under natural light. 7:08
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His hiking buddies are rescued black bears

To Joel Rosenthal, nothing in this world can top "just casually going for an hour hike with a bear." He lives with five of them, deep in the woods of West Virginia. more

Joel is 74 and a former biologist, and his home is Point of View Farm, a 262-acre wildlife sanctuary on the empty side of a big river. People call him when they find a bear that is hurt or abandoned, and he takes the bear in. He has had 20 bears in all.

The cubs start out indoors. "I take naps with them, we play in the house, they get fed in the house," he says. As they grow, they move to bigger spaces outside, and he feeds them several times a day so they get used to him.

Then come the walks. Two or three young bears follow him through the grass while he walks with his cane. "I really have to pinch myself all the time," he says, because he still can hardly believe he has this kind of relationship with them.

Joel Rosenthal, white-haired, walks through a grassy field with a cane, wearing a patterned sweater and boots. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Joel heads out across the field, and on these walks the young bears follow him.

When the bears are old enough and hunting season has passed, he lets them go. They don't become a nuisance or break into homes, he says. They just go off and become wild bears. The hard part comes later, because he guesses almost all of the ones he released were killed by hunters, and he works to keep that grief out of his head.

So some bears stay. Rose is almost 7 and about 300 pounds, and she grew up in the house. She once had a cub right there on the farm, and Joel played with the cub every day until the two of them went off into the forest. Now he keeps her locked up so she won't be shot.

An older adult female walks with three juvenile black bears in a dry grassy outdoor setting during late autumn or early spring, under natural light. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
To Joel Rosenthal, nothing in this world can top "just casually going for an hour hike with a bear." He lives with five of them, deep in the woods of West Virginia.

Waffles is almost 2, close to 200 pounds and, in Joel's words, "such a sweetie." He is locked up too, for a funnier reason. Instead of going off to be a real bear for the summer, he wanted to be in the house all the time. Waffles also likes peanut butter, and Rose does not, so she doesn't get any.

Joel is the only person living on his side of the river for miles. He can go a month or two without seeing another human, and he calls himself a happy camper. "I prefer any animal to humans," he says, and that's the line viewers quote back to him more than any other.

A grayish-brown fox stands on a wooden deck with its ears up, looking straight ahead. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
A fox stands on the deck at the farm, where Joel lives miles from other people.

He has never been attacked. He knows a bear of 200 or 300 pounds is stronger than ten people and quicker than a rattlesnake, and he says that trying to discipline one makes him feel like a doting mother with a huge linebacker. A scratch now and then is part of it, he says, but it's not an attack. He stays respectful, because they're wild animals even though he raised them.

Joel Rosenthal holds a stick while standing near two large black bears in a grassy field with trees behind. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Joel stands with two of his big black bears, which have never attacked him.

He calls the farm the culmination of his lifelong dream. "Here they come again," he says, calling to Boo. "Look at you guys. Look at all three of you."

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