B.C.'s Bloom the badger dips her paws into art world

A B.C. badger has dipped her toes into the world of art — quite literally.

Bloom, a 13-year-old female American badger, made her painting debut with the help of staff at Kamloops' B.C. Wildlife Park, where she has lived since being found as an orphan in 2006.

Animal care manager Tracy Reynolds said keepers regularly encourage their animals to paint as a way to keep them stimulated and to create bonds with their human caretakers.

"It's fun for the keepers and it's fun for the animals," Reynolds told CBC Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.

"We just put the paint on the paper, first, in little blobs, and the keeper encourages Bloom to come up on her lap.... then Bloom comes up and just smears it around with her hands."

The end result is what Reynolds called a "bold" mixture of reds, greens and yellows, "kind of like a Rorschach." 

Reynolds said Bloom was primarily motivated by the food being offered to her while she painted, but thinks she enjoyed the process.

She said feeling the paint is a good sensory experience for the animals.

After consulting with fans on Facebook, the park has decided to auction off the painting to help pay for a new enclosure for another resident: Ranger, a flying squirrel who was found sick and dehydrated in August at an estimated age of four weeks old.

The park hopes to build Ranger a living space that simulates the night during the day and the day during the night so he'll be active during park visiting hours.

Reynolds isn't sure how much money Bloom's painting will raise but hopes it attracts interest from animal and art lovers alike.

"I think it's a pretty neat conversation piece," she said.

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