Else Poulsen

Else Poulsen has worked at the Calgary and Detroit zoos and is known internationally for her work rehabilitating bears. In 2000 she won the Zookeeper Excellence Award for bear research from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. Her book Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears was published in 2009. Her new book, Bärle’s Story: One Polar Bear’s Amazing Recovery from Life as a Circus Act (Greystone), documents the rescue and rehabilitation of a wild-born bear. Poulsen lives in southern Ontario, and works with zoos and other animal welfare organizations as an animal behaviour specialist.