Three tiny black bear cubs were dumped and locked inside a washroom at a viewpoint overlooking Vermilion Lakes in Banff National Park last weekend.
Three tiny black bear cubs were dumped and locked inside a washroom at a viewpoint overlooking Vermilion Lakes in Banff National Park last weekend.
Parks Canada officials say the three cubs were discovered as someone went to use the washroom, located at a pull-out on the east-bound lane of the Trans-Canada Highway immediately west of the Norquay interchange late Saturday night (April 1).
There was no sign of the mother bear. Park wardens are investigating.
“There was no mother bear on site, or in the area, despite an extensive search of adjacent areas,” said Sheila Luey, acting superintendent for Banff National Park. “We looked for three days and we didn’t find any sign of bear activity.”
The cubs, which were still nursing, are young-of-year cubs and said to appear healthy.
“They look to be about three months old and they are in the four- to six-pound range. We’re taking care of the bears and they are being bottle fed right now,” said Luey.
“I can only imagine it would have been very stressful for the cubs without their mom stuck in a washroom. She would still have been feeding them.”
It’s unknown if park wardens have any leads in their investigation at this time, but Luey did say they are trying not to speculate on how the bears got there. They ask anyone with information to call Banff dispatch at 403-762-1470.
“We can’t begin to guess where they came from, whether they’re bears from the national park, or brought in from outside the park,” she said. “We had staff out there with a fine tooth comb and we have not found any road-kill bears.”
In Banff National Park, female black bears with cubs typically emerge from the den in mid-April to early May.
If a female black bear builds up enough fat reserves to get her through the winter, cubs will be born in the den in late January or February. The cubs weigh about 300 g (just over ½ lb) at birth and gain up to two kilograms.
Black bear offspring typically remain with their mothers for a year or longer, depending on the tolerance level of the mother. There’s an estimated 20-40 black bears in Banff National Park.
For the moment, a single park employee is essentially handling the cubs’ care while Parks Canada works to find the three young bruins a new home.
A rehabilitation facility, or a certified zoo are being explored.
“Hopefully, if we can get them into a rehabilitation facility, then after they are a bit older, in an ideal world, we may be able to reintroduce them back to the mountain parks ecosystem,” said Luey. “Or, they may not be good candidates for reintroduction and they may live out their life in a rehabilitation facility."
Luey said the ideal outcome is to see these young cubs live a natural bear life in their natural habitat.
“We want the best for these bears,” she said. “We’re doing everything we can to minimize the amount of contact these bears have with anyone right now. We want to avoid any activities, to the greatest degree possible, that aren’t natural.”
