Picture this: A typical day in Heber City, Utah. Cars parked along Main Street, locals shopping, going to work or church, and a man with a mustache holds the lead, guiding his companion, a 1,500-pound grizzly bear, to the Dairy Keen for a hamburger—one of the bear’s favorite treats.
The grizzly bear in question is animal film star Bart the Bear and the man is his trainer Doug Seus. While bears taking a stroll on Main Street is not a common scene in Heber anymore, “The people who have been here for a long time, they were used to it,” says Lynne Seus, fellow wildlife trainer and Doug’s partner in marriage and many other wild adventures. “People would say, ‘Oh, yeah, there goes Doug and their bears.’”
Bart the Bear passed away in 2000, but, he still hangs out on Main Street, in a way. At the end of 2024, mural artist Chris Peterson painted a mural of Bart across the street from Main Street’s Avon Theater. “It was like having a picture up of our kid. It was such an honor,” says Lynne.
The mural unveiling event also celebrated Bart with a film festival of the movies in which he starred, alongside the likes of John Candy and Dan Aykroyd (The Great Outdoors, 1988), Ethan Hawke (White Fang, 1991), and Brad Pitt (Legends of the Fall, 1995). Friends of Lynn and Doug and longtime Heberites shared memories and stories about Bart. “That little theater was packed and it brought us to tears,” says Lynne. “Just the memories that the community had and—well, I guess, you would remember if you were in a bowling alley and somebody brought a grizzly bear in to have a hamburger and milkshake with you.”
The community event also coincided with the release of Lynne’s memoir, The Grizzlies and Us, a frank and delightful retelling of Doug and Lynne’s decades-long journey raising, taming and training a menagerie of critters to be on screen. Bears, wolves, raccoons, skunks, foxes—there doesn’t seem to be an animal that Doug has met that he couldn’t connect with. “The things he accomplished and the love and trust this man built,” marvels Lynne. “He bonded with Bart I and Bart II, two 1,500-pound bears. That is extraordinary both for the man and for the bear.”
At this point in our conversation, Doug turns the focus away from himself and on Lynne. “She’s the one who wrote this book, and I’m so proud of her for her candidness,” he says. “I think of the honesty that she wrote about life, etcetera, and I don’t think there’s enough candor in the world. My philosophy is ‘be raw.’” It’s the same philosophy of honesty and integrity that they wish other people might glean from their wild “teachers,” as Lynne refers to the animals in their care in her book. “You have to be totally who you are—totally honest with animals,” she says. “If you put on a facade, they’ll see right through it.”
In many ways, Doug and Lynne are the first of their kind, and they might be some of the last. “We were so fortunate to be following our dream and being in the movie business with our bear, while we were,” says Lynne. Now, computer-generated graphics have replaced most wild animals on screen, with few exceptions. Naysayers aside (and there were many), there’s also a bit more red tape between a young couple and their dream of raising wildlife (alongside human children) on their private property than there was in 1977 when they took on Bart and his brother Zack as cubs from the Baltimore Zoo. Not to mention, compared to the 1970s, there are much higher economic barriers to buying said private property—a farmhouse in Daniels Creek, Heber, Utah (where the median home listing price is now a cool $1.2 million). It’s heartbreaking to realize we’ve lost many of the habitats that support wild, young dreamers and where the odds are slim of ever having another Doug and Lynne Seus.
the memoir is available
at vitalground.org
Lynne still encourages people to defy the odds and “for anyone who is following a dream, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t,” she says. Recently, following their dream led to their starting the Vital Ground Foundation, which preserves and restores grizzly bear habitats. Doug says they have already seen the grizzly make a comeback in extending its range more than has been seen in the last 200 years. “We’re seeing the ‘big open’ coming—I call the big open. The massive, beautiful ground that was once just under crops and now it’s coming back to indigenous grasses and indigenous animals that haven’t been seen for years,” Doug explains with contagious passion. “Anyhow, excuse me, if I may—I’m gonna go shovel poop,” he adds. Lynne laughs, “That’s the glamorous side of the job.” Certainly, one of a kind.
The Wild Ones
The grizzlies in Doug and Lynne’s care (past and present).
Bart (I) Bart’s brother Zack preferred a quiet life, according to Lynne.
He made a new home at a zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Honeybump and her brother, Bart (II), came to Lynne and Doug as cubs shortly after Bart (I) passed away. Their mother had been baited from their den and killed by a hunter, and the cubs were rescued by Fish & Wildlife rangers in Alaska. Honeybump and Bart (II) appeared in Dr. Dolittle 2 and Evan Almighty, and Bart (II) also starred in We Bought a Zoo and Game of Thrones. Bart (II) passed away in 2021
Tank the bear was born in captivity and has a gentle demeanor, according to Lynne. He stole the spotlight as a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and in Dr. Dolittle 2.
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