Red Lake Bear Cub Update

The Black Bear “cub” we picked up from a home on March 19th, 2012 was brought down to the Garrison Animal Hospital (and transferred to their wildlife facility, Wild and Free). Upon examination, it was discovered that the “cub” was actually a yearling (about 14 months old) and was extremely underweight at 15 pounds (she should have been 60 to 75 pounds). She obviously was undernourished an d probably underweight when denning season began. It is a rarity that she had survived the winter on her own (normally she would have denned with her mother).

The picture at the top right is the bear when we picked her up prior to treatment to get her rehydrated and gaining weight. The lower picture is her happily spending time 40 feet up in a tree in her temporary home at Wild and Free.

She is reportedly doing very well and will be kept at the facility near Garrison through the summer. This Fall, she and any other orphan bears will be denned up together in a preselected site, so that by the Spring of 2013 they can resume their lives in the wild.

Wild and Free website: http://www.frontiernet.net/~debbernie/

Red Lake DNR Website: http://www.redlakednr.org/