A bewildered bear cub scrambles through Cataract Creek campground in search of his missing mother. Barely the size of a Yorkshire terrier, the cinnamon-coloured cub stumbles from campsite to campsite, approaching several Kananaskis campers, desperatly searching for warmth and protection. But the search is in vain.
His mother has left him.
Darkness falls. The lone cub can do little more than sit and bawl into the night. The campground operator calls Kananaskis Public Safety, worried of the impending danger that comes with the crush of weekend visitors.
By Saturday morning, conservation officers arrive to investigate. They find the bear cub weak, dehydrated and suffering from diarrhea. He’s having trouble walking and isn’t a black bear as originally reported. He’s a grizzly.
The policy for Alberta Parks is to let nature take its course. Government policy says the agency shouldn’t interfere with an animal unless it poses a public risk; a bear that approaches humans so brazenly should be euthanized.
However on this day, staring at the weakened, frightened and lonesome bear, under the watchful gaze of concerned campers, the conservation officers change their minds. This cub, they decide, will live.
The bear is rushed to Dr. Sandie Black at the Calgary Zoo. Dehydrated and suffering from diarrhea, the small grizzly is a mere five-pounds when Dr. Black sees him.
She stays up through the night with the cub, giving him fluids and providing a warm bed of wood shavings. The zoo is well-equipped for helping wild animals.
By morning, his health is much improved.
“He’s here and doing well,” said Laurie Skene, communications manager with the Calgary Zoo. “He’s behaving like a normal bear cub now.”
The bear cub is now healthy, however his fate is far from certain. The Calgary Zoo already has two grizzly bears and doesn’t appear to have room for more, Skene said. Other rehabilitation centres exist and the Zoo and the government will try to find him a new home. The government officially signed over ownership of the bear to the zoo, however they’ll still have some say as to where the cub ends up. They’ll also pay for some of the bear’s care.
Senior parks biologist with Kananaskis Melanie Percy said the bear could one day return to the wild, but only if he’s placed at a facility that can properly rehabilitate him.
“It depends on what facility he goes to. There is a facility in British Columbia that rehabilitates bears in a manner that they don’t have close contact with humans so they can be released again,” Percy said.
While speculation suggests the cub may have been the runt of the litter and fallen behind his mother and siblings, Percy said she doesn’t know why the cub was abandoned.
“Things can happen in breeding season. We went out and did a telemetry search for the mother and found nothing,” Percy said.
The decision to move the bear wasn’t made lightly and a number of factors weighed on the officers. Leaving a bear that young in the middle of a campground was not viable.
“Being in the campground with so many hazards, we needed to do something. Dogs could have killed or injured him and he was in a high human-use area,” Percy said.
Not all cubs are given the same chance. In 2010, a young cub was found paralyzed at the side of the road. His mother got into a fight with another female grizzly, and the young cub ended up in bad shape. He was also taken to the zoo, but rehabilitation wasn’t possible. The cub was then euthanized.
Cubs can survive on their own once they’re big enough, however this cub was nowhere near the right size.
“Realistically, before August, bear cubs don’t make it on their own. If they’re in good shape, they can survive,” Percy said. “When it comes to natural abandonments, we’re definitely supportive of letting the natural process take its course. But since this was in a high public-use area, we chose to intervene.”
The bear cub has gained weight since he was picked up on June 2 and officials are hopeful the bear could return to the wild.
“The best case, the little guy can be raised in a manner that he can be released. If not, he can be used in conservation education,” Percy said.
