ROCKY VIEW – A three-month-old orphaned female black bear cub has been removed without warning from the Cochrane Ecological Institute by Alberta Environment and Parks.
The female bear had called the institute home for 10 days before its sudden seizure by provincial authorities on June 1, said president Clio Smeeton. At the same time the animal was seized, authorities cancelled the institute's annual permit to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs indefinitely.
The bear was then placed in the care of the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation.
“I just don’t understand why, we’ve never had this type of thing,” Smeeton said.
The Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI) was founded in 1965 and obtained its first licence to operate in 1967. The licence allowed the institute to accept all Indigenous species for rescue, rearing and release. It first began rehabilitating bears under permit in 1985. In 1993 it became a registered charity.
The seizure of the bear is the result of a series of alleged offences cited by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP).
Smeeton said the institute has never faced a situation like this and questioned the alleged offence of holding wildlife improperly.
Smeeton said three breaches to the permit were cited by the AEP, including how the bear was transported to the institute; a delay in notifying the province the bear had been received at the facility; and that the veterinarian who treated the bear cub had not been officially added to CEI’s veterinary roster by AEP.
The orphaned bear cub was first spotted by a hunter on May 17 near Kearl Lake, near Fort McMurray. At the time, the three-month-old cub was covered in bitumen and weighed 11 pounds. The hunter who found the cub estimates the animal had been on its own for four days before it was rescued, Smeeton said.
While a staff member travelled to Kearl Lake to retrieve the cub, when they arrived in Rocky Mountain House they stopped to rest. Meanwhile, the hunter who discovered the cub also arrived in Rocky Mountain House and ended up transporting the cub the rest of the way to the CEI, which Smeeton said this is the first “contravention” of the permit cited by AEP.
That same day the cub was transferred to the organization, a CEI vehicle was used to transport the cub to a vet in Airdrie for a check up. Smeeton noted as part of the permit, CEI is required to see a veterinarian within 48 hours of a bear's arrival. The cub was anaesthetized during the vet visit to remove bitumen, and blood and tissue samples required by AEP were also taken.
The cub arrived back at the institute at 5:30 p.m. on May 19.
As part of the permit, the institute is required to notify AEP within 24 hours of a cub arriving at the facility, Smeeton said. She notified AEP at 8:30 a.m. on June 21, resulting in a delay of approximately 15 hours past the 24-hour mark.
Smeeton said she believes removing the cub from a home where it was becoming comfortable is a disastrous result for the animal.
“There was no need to do what they did,” Smeeton said. “On her outlook on life and on her trust and everything like that, it was a terrible thing to happen to her.”
In the 10 days she spent at the institute, the cub gained 10 pounds and was beginning to grow comfortable at her new home.
She was placed in a nursery after her trip to the vet to ensure she was eating well and healthy. When she grew big enough, the cub was moved out of the nursery and into a facility purposely built for orphan bear cubs at the institute.
Alberta Environment and Parks confirmed in an email statement CEI had breached some of its permit conditions. It did not clarify what conditions had been violated.
The statement said the Alberta government has permitted the rehabilitation and release of orphan black bear cubs since 2018 under strict protocols focused on the safety of bears and humans. The statement alleges CEI has repeatedly advocated for outcomes or approaches contradicting science-based protocols, putting the safety of bears and the public at risk.
"Recent actions by Cochrane Ecological Institute that breached permit conditions have left Alberta Environment and Parks no choice but to remove Cochrane Ecological Institute's authorization to rehabilitate black bear cubs at their facility," said the statement. "Fish and Wildlife officers have moved the bear cub to another approved wildlife rehabilitation facility, where they will do everything they can to ensure the bear does not become habituated to humans. Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services is investigating how the bear ended up captured and brought to Cochrane Ecological Institute."
The facilities at CEI span 140 acres and are isolated, preventing human interactions with the wildlife. She noted the institute is also closed to the public.
“We can give them a better life just because there’s more room, there are more trees,” Smeeton said. “They are not going to become habituated, which is one of the major concerns of AEP.”
CEI was issued its wildlife rehabilitation permit on March 31. The permit is issued based upon approval of captive management protocol and the wildlife facilities built on the organization’s 140 acres of native habitat.
The facility boasts three approved bear enclosures measuring half of an acre, two acres and three acres respectively.
The permit allows the institute to accept up to five orphaned black bear cubs.
For now, Smeeton has been left questioning why the bear was taken and what will happen to the cub and future orphaned bear cubs moving forward.
CEI has been focused on researching what happens to rehabilitated bears when they are re-released, but this will take years of committed work.
It has a slew of experts to work with to better understand wildlife rehabilitation and take steps to ensure orphaned animals can thrive using a multidisciplinary approach. The future of this research is now uncertain given the seizure of the bear cub and the suspension of the permit.
“I really would like the entire thing to be reinstated as it was prior to June 1,” Smeeton said. “We have the best facilities for rearing bears in Alberta, we have the experience and we have the advisors – internationally recognized advisors and specialists.”
