He’s not your average bear.
Jim and Susan Kowalczik snuggle and play with a 1,400-pound Kodiak brown bear named Jimmy as if he were their child.
The fearless duo, from Otisville, NY, adopted the 9-foot-tall gentle giant about 20 years ago, when he was just a cub.
“Jimmy is my best friend. It doesn’t get any better than that. He loves you just for you,” Jim, 57, told Barcroft Media.
The extraordinary relationship became a global sensation after a video of Jim giving Jimmy a backrub and bear hugs went viral in January.
Even though the massive 21-year-old carnivore has never intentionally taken a nibble out of his parents, he can get a little rough by accident.
“He’s very gentle but sometimes he doesn’t know his own strength — like if you’re trying to walk away, he will grab your clothes or shorts and pull you back to him,” said Jim, who’s a retired corrections officer.
“Think of the strongest person you know and magnify it by a thousand times. He has so much strength. All he’d have to do is lay on you.”
The fearless couple have devoted their lives to rescuing and rehabilitating injured animals — including 11 different types of bears — at their nonprofit animal sanctuary, the Orphaned Wildlife Center. While the goal is to release most of the animals back into the wild, many, like Jimmy, are unable to due to injuries.
In order to keep the beasts healthy and happy, they need to be fed — a lot.
The bear necessities include 30 pounds of grub daily, including a mix of meat, pet food, fruit and the occasional marshmallow as a treat.
Many of the behemoth creatures were saved as babies from breeding programs or nature reserves that were shut down.
Susan is especially close with a Syrian bear named Jenny who likes to suckle on her finger for comfort.
“She looks at me like I’m her mother. I love being around her and I’m happy she feels that way about me still even after all these years,” said Susan, 57.
“It’s a wonderful thing to watch them grow up and to have them from very little and make an impression on them.”
But because a bear’s lifespan is longer than a typical pet’s (between 20 and 25 years for Kodiak brown bears), when one dies, it’s comparable to losing a family member.
Said Susan: “It’s the same thing as mourning a child.”