by Cheryl Millham, LTWC Executive Director

Saturday afternoon, April 14th.  LTWC received a call from the Kern Valley Wildlife Rescue, in Kern County, near Bakersfield, California.  They told us they have had a bear cub for about three days and their California Fish and Game warden advised them to call and transport the cub to us.

We met them the next morning in Sacramento, transferred the cub to our cage and returned back to South Lake Tahoe. 

We arrived back at the center at about 12:00pm.  I made some bear cub formula which I obtained from Sally Maughan’s book on bear cub rehab (Idaho Black Bear Rehab, Inc.).  Sally has raised bear cubs since 1989 and is the President of IBBR.

After calling Nicole Carion, the California Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Rehabilitation Coordinator, to inform her of our new acquisition, we called our veterinarian, Dr. Kevin Willitts, owner of Alpine Animal Hospital, to come over and examine the cub. 

We asked a few of our close, experienced volunteers (Helen Tanner, Denise Upton and Pam Amsden) to come over and assist with the examination.  We also informed Dan Thrift, photographer for the Tahoe Daily Tribune, so we could get some documentation of the cub’s first day with LTWC.  You will see ‘some’ of Dan’s pictures in the upcoming issue of the Quill and on our website (click on the photos on the right to view). 

Monday was a blur, trying to get a routine started and to get the cub to drink his milk out of a dish.  We also did what we could to get him to eat some “soft” food. 

Monday night, we realized we had not heard from Nicole Carion (CFG) yet, so Tuesday morning, we made another call to her.  She sprang into action.  Fish and Game wanted to see the cub down at the main office in Rancho Cordova THAT day.  Nicole relayed to us that, “If the cub is healthy, AND was a good candidate for rehabilitation, they would send it back to begin rehab.” 

Bob Dietz, one of the founders of LTWC and our Board Member Emeritus, transported the cub down to Rancho Cordova for us and waited for the results.  He called about 4pm and said, “I am on my way back, with a cub!”

So, NOW, my work begins.  Since I have never had a cub this young before, I turned again to Sally and her years of experience.  I have her training manual and started reading about bottle feeding, imprinting and handling cubs.  There might be a whole lot of people that don’t understand about imprinting and will NOT understand when they are told they CANNOT see or interact with this cub.  The recommendation from Sally’s book is to have ONE primary caregiver and ONE back-up. Obviously, the BEST thing for THIS cub would be to get another cub so they can interact with each other. 

We (LTWC) have successfully rehabbed and released every cub we have received from Fish and Game, with the exception of the very first cub, which had to be euthanized 24 hours after arriving here.  We very much want to keep that record in tact.

Here are some quotes from Sally’s manual:

When cubs first arrive, they may be afraid and stay at a distance.  If orphaned for a longer period, they will quickly turn to you for food and attention.  Although accepting of us, they remained wary of strangers.  We keep human contact to a minimum with only one individual bottle feeding the cubs and one person as an emergency back-up.

To lessen the stress, provide the cubs with a quiet area in which to hide.  A dog kennel is perfect for this.  Put in a few blankets or towels.  Quite by accident, we found the cubs immediately attracted to a bedding of ‘fake fur’. 

Start a routine and ‘stick to it’!  The security they feel from their surroundings, the routine and acceptance of the caretaker will reduce the stress.  One of the first signs that the cubs are feeling secure is the purring or ‘chortling’ sound they display.  However, they can also start this when stressed as a means of reassuring themselves.  You will know from the situation if it’s a sign of stress or contentment.  They will also knead a blanket or pillow as cats do.  Another sign they are feeling secure is when that mellow “teddy bear” turns into a tornado on four feet.  Their aggressiveness and exaggerated swats, bites and nips let us know they are content and safe in being a bear around us.

Since I have had no previous experience with a cub this young, I am going to follow the rules set down by the expert, Sally.  I don’t ever want one of LTWC’s animals kept in a zoo or sanctuary because of imprinting by us.