Peeka, a 9-year-old grizzly housed at the WSU Bear Center, earns top place for demonstrating the most systematic ability to foil human security efforts. On her own, she learned a three-step process enabling her to slide open a door leading to an enclosed pen. Using her massive paw, she undid a spring-loaded clip; lifted a latch; then slid a bolt.
“Whenever I’d hear the clip hit the floor, I knew I had about two seconds to vacate the pen before the door would swing open,” said Charlie Robbins, a wildlife nutritionist who founded the one-of-a kind center in the 1980s. Robbins installed a more sophisticated type of latch on the pen, but Peeka figured that one out as well.
