The first bear cub to be rescued from the wild in Alberta and transferred into the care of a wildlife rehabilitation centre under a recently adopted protocol is showing significant progress.
The cinnamon-coloured black bear cub arrived at the centre Thursday morning weighing approximately 3 kg (7 lbs) after being spotted in Crowsnest Pass.
“He was found in a campground near Coleman,” explained Lisa Dahlseide, education director at the Cochrane Ecological Institute. “The campers monitored the area, to see if a mother would come in, for several hours prior to calling Fish and Wildlife and no mother came.”
A conservation officer was deployed to the area and collected the bear cub. “Thanks to the protocol that was put in place by Alberta Environment and Parks on April 18, the conservation officer was aware that he was to contact the Cochrane Ecological Institute. He made the arrangements for a transfer."
The bear cub was transported to Turner Valley where a second vehicle from the institute accepted care of the animal. He was very hungry when he arrived at Cochrane Ecological Institute and he took to the bottle right away. The cub settled as a lone caretaker fed him goat’s milk through the night.
“He woke up feeling much more comfortable in his surroundings this morning and is doing good,” said Dahlseide. “Overall, his health is good. The vet comes later to do the health assessment but so far he looks good. He’s vibrant, alert, can move around.”
The new protocol allows wildlife facilities to accept care of an orphaned or abandoned bear if the animal is less than a year old. The bear would undergo an assessment and returned to the wild in October of the year of its arrival.
Staff at the Cochrane Ecological Institute decided that the first cub to arrive at the institute would be given the name Charlie to honour the late Charlie Russell, a naturalist who championed for bears and dedicated his life to studying the animals.
Charlie the cub’s interactions with humans will be limited to bottle feedings and he will be weaned off the goat’s milk in the coming months.
“He will be a wild bear. We have some viewing states where the workers of the Cochrane Ecological Institute can observe him from a distance where he’s not going to be able to see them. He won’t have that human contact shortly after that bottle feeding is done but we’ll still be able to monitor him and his development from a distance and see what his personality ends up being.”
Charlie’s enclosure is large and has natural food sources (including Saskatoon berries, wild rose tips and Canada buffalo berries), numerous trees for climbing and swimming areas.
The institute does have plans to return Charlie to the wild but are hoping to keep the cub into 2019. “The Alberta Environment and Parks protocol is to release in the fall, October 18, but we are working with them to keep the bear longer so that the chances of survival post-release are greater.”
Dahleside says she is extremely grateful for the new protocol and says Charlie’s chances of survival without human intervention were slim. “They are mammals and require milk. Without that milk, they will starve to death and it would have been a very slow and awful death for that bear cub.”
Prior to the introduction of the new protocol in April of this year, orphaned or abandoned bears found in Alberta could not be rehabilitated within the province and were transported out-of-province for care.
With files from CTV's Stephanie Wiebe
