Bear Kisses And The Jordan Circus
By: Alex Hayes
Updated: October 21, 2011
T-Boar is one of the biggest black bears in North America, but you wouldn't be able to tell if you spent more than a minute around him. The bear's handler, Ari Steeples, says he's basically like a big dog.
"T-Boar is 19 years old he was born January 25th, 1992 in South Texas at my dad's ranch," says Steeples, whose been working with the animals for over two decades.
T-Boars usual diet consists mainly of Beneful Dog Food, but when he caught a whiff of the Mckay Bakery sweets, he couldn't resist stealing a chocolate cupcake.
"We go to Walmart and see what's on sale," says Steeples, "lettuce, celery, carrots, apples, oranges... in the Summer time he loves a half a gallon of orange sherbert."
Through out the entire segment, T-Boar was continuously fed snacks while sitting patiently by.
"T-Boar has been raised with the family," says Steeples, "we've never asked him to do anything difficult, we try to always be nice to him and keep him in a happy safe environment and I think that kinda reflects in his personality."
His personality is so sweet, he even decided to give our host Alex Hayes a big bear kiss.
The Jordan Circus rolls into the Taylor County Expo center tonight, the show starts at 7pm. Along with T-Boar, you can see tigers, elephants, flying trapeze, jugglers, and hand balancers. Tickets are $12.99 for Children and $16.99 for Adults.
To learn more about the other acts featured in tonight's performance, visit the Jordan Circus Webpage.







