A busy week.

It has been a whirlwind week here at the shelter. Just last night at around 3am we picked up another cub. It's mother was hit by a car and killed and 3 days later some loggers found the corpse at the side of the logging road, with the cub sitting on it, still trying to nurse of the dead body. The sight was so heart-wrenching that the loggers were in tears when they made the call to us, to ask if we could help. The little bear came in weighing only 7.6lbs, around 10lbs underweight of a healthy bear at this age.

Speaking of healthy bears yesterday we moved the three little cubs up to the outside enclosure. Norman met Jo and Fisher and I he is so happy to have some friends. In the outside enclosure they have much more room to run around and climb. They have trees to explore and are exposed to the elements and to other wildlife. This will help them learn more about the environment they will be released into next year and will give them a much better chance at survival.

Norman (top), Fisher (left) and Jo (right) exploring their new enclosure

Earlier on in the week we received a small gosling, named Ninja, after he tried to walk right into someone's fire pit all by himself. After it was determined there were no other geese around he was sent to us. He is pretty darn cute. We don't have any other goslings here and he was getting pretty lonely so in the meantime I put a small wind up Easter chick toy into his cage and he started following it around when I wound it up! Adorable. We then received 8 ducklings after their mum got hit by a lawnmower and we put Ninja in with them and he seems to have adopted all of them, which is great. Not to mention super cute when we walked in the next morning and saw all the ducklings cuddled up against Ninja. 

Ninja and part of his new flock

Finally we received a call just under a week ago about a grizzly bear in Fernie, right in the south of BC on the Alberta border. This shelter is the only place in the entire world licensed to rehab Grizzly bears, and since the pilot project started they have successfully raised and released 11 Grizzly bears. 

The cub is around 16 months old and severely malnourished. It is theorised that he has been alone since last Autumn, that he hibernated alone after his mother was killed last year. The shelter owners drove for 2 and a half days to pick him up and found that he was all skin and bone. From a distance he looks better but his fur is still very fluffy so it is deceiving. When he arrived at the shelter we put him on the scale and found he weighed a measly 48lbs. Around 100lbs underweight of a healthy Grizzly for this time of year.

'Little Foot' the Grizzly bear

This is huge for the shelter and global news instantly contacted saying they wanted to run a story so we have been filming and taking pictures constantly and sending them copies. Footage that I filmed of his arrival even appeared on National news!

He appears to be doing well and is eating lots. He will hopefully continue to put on weight here and be released later in August.

Born to be Wild

So before I get onto the really, really good news I should probably tell you all about the two new additions to the shelter.

A few days ago we got a call about two tiny cubs that had been seen alone in the Cranbrook area, which is right in the south of BC, near the US border. Someone went to check it out and they found the cubs in extremely bad shape. They were so small and weak that they could easily be picked up and put in a transport box with no fighting or anything. The female, Jo, weighed 5lbs and the male, Fisher weighed 6lbs. For comparison, Norman who is the same age and still a little underweight weighs 15lbs. They saw a vet as soon as possible and were deemed to be starving, dehydrated and if they hadn't have been found when they were, they most likely wouldn't have survived the night.

From there an intricate mission started to get them to the shelter. We first tried to arrange to get them on a flight straight to Smithers as this would be the quickest way to get them here. However it was a long weekend and the guy in charge who we needed to agree to transporting bears wouldn't be back in the office for another three days and that just wouldn't do. Driving to Cranbrook is a trip that could take anywhere between 15 and 20 hours so we put out a message asking for help and we got several people to drive the bears north so we could meet them in the middle.

It was a huge group effort and the bears are here now. They are eating, but it is clear they have a long way to go. They are severely underweight and I haven't heard one sound come from either of them, which is very unusual.

Jo (left) and Fisher (right) enjoying some milk.

In other (happier) bear news Norman is doing great, we had to move him out of his hospital pen to make room for Jo and Fisher. He protested a bit at first, refusing to drink his milk, instead opting to flip the bowl over and make a mess. He screamed and generally caused trouble until we dragged in a huge hollow log and that seemed to mellow him out a bit. He sits inside there for hours on end, quite content with his new home.

Norman, enjoying his new bed

Finally just a few days ago we released our first black bear, Berwyn. When he arrived at the shelter way back in October he weighed only 40lbs. Unfortunately he didn't gain enough weight to successfully hibernate through the winter, but he steadily grew and when we weighed him a few hours before release, he was up to 106lbs! We drove up into a provincial park, in the same region as where we found him. Along the way we saw two wild black bears, two moose and grizzly tracks, pretty good for a 2 hour drive. Then when it came to release we opened the box and he ran out, ready to explore and continue his life where he is meant to be - In the wild. It was a very emotional experience, having seen him come in as a tiny little bear, taking his little paw prints a few weeks after arriving. I took his paw prints again on release day and they are now as big as my hand. As he ran out of the box i'm not even ashamed to say that I was crying, happy tears of course, but crying all the same. I have suggested that a box of tissues become part of the release kit as i'm sure that i'll be crying on other releases I get to go on.

Bye Berwyn!

I'm a mummy!

No, not like that. Don't have a heart attack mum. I've become a surrogate mummy to Norman the bear cub that arrived a few weeks ago. He is now off bottle feeding and has started eating more fruit, albeit, pureed together to form a kind of mixed fruit smoothie. He still gets milk and porridge and all of those combined have helped him put on another two pounds since he arrived, almost doubling his weight to 4.52lbs.

He has to be fed four times a day. The first feeding being at six in the morning and the last at eleven at night. I have taken the morning feeding slot as i'm up around that time anyway. Yes to any of my family reading this, you read that correctly. I'm a morning person now. I wake up between six and six thirty each morning without an alarm. So It just seemed to make sense that I do the early shifts.

Also because Norman is currently the only small bear cub here, we also have the task of playing with him to allow him to exhibit his natural play behaviours and help develop his physical and mental skills. So for part of each day I become Norman's playmate. I thought he was cute before but seeing this tiny little furball trying to attack my knee or play fighting with his teddy bear is just too adorable. I like to wait until he runs towards me, then with either my hands or a teddy tickle his tummy until he rolls over. He then runs away only to come running back for more. He thinks it's a great game. I also use the teddy when I give him milk. I place the milk bowl down and then put the teddy next to the bowl as if it is drinking the milk. This usually causes Norman to com running over and try to push the teddy away so he can drink the milk himself. This is a great behaviour to have and will help him tremendously when he does get released as he will inevitably face competition in the wild.

Yes I know, I have a tough job. But someone's got to do it right?

Norman the bear

Spring has sprung at the shelter, all the snow has completely disappeared, the sun is shining, and occasionally the rain comes pelting down, but being from England i'm pretty used to this and always receive some weird looks when i'm feeding animals in my rain coat insisting that it's 'just water, calm down'.

With spring comes baby animals so we are busy preparing for the baby season which starts next month. However we did receive a very cute guest a few days ago.

Meet Norman.

Norman is a baby black bear around 3 months in age. He was found alone in the Penticton region of BC which is around 650 miles south of where the shelter is. He was transported up to us and currently resides in the hospital pen where he is doing very well.

Norman is in relatively good shape, if a little underweight. For comparison the three cubs we looked after in March, despite being a month younger, weighed more then Norman when they arrived. These bears are good examples of what the prime weight should be, as they have (except for one night) never been separated from their mother. The fact that Norman weighs less than them and is around the same size could be cause for concern. However he is very active has been put on a diet of milk, porridge and apples.

Did I mention that he is also too cute for words? He has two cuddly toys for comfort and watching him play fight with them, or attack pieces of straw is adorable. He shows that straw who's boss. In the hospital pen there is a shelf around a meter of the ground. Norman, despite being tiny, somehow managed to climb his way up onto the shelf, only to then get stuck and was unable to get down without help. He kept doing this until we eventually made a ramp so he wouldn't get stuck anymore. Only now that there is access to the shelf he suddenly isn't as interested in going up there any more. Typical man.

Norman will stay in the hospital until he gains weight and starts eating more solid food once he is off the milk and big enough he will eventually be transported to one of the outside pens up on the hill, where he will continue to hopefully gain weight and be monitored until it is time for release in just over a years time.

Highs and lows

It's been a week of highs and lows, so I shall start with the bad news, just to get it out of the way. At the shelter there was an adorable little owl named Henry. Henry came to the shelter before I arrived so I do not know his entire back story, all I know is that he suffered from some light brain damage and had vision trouble. Despite his problems he was very cute, and had quite a personality. Whenever I would clean his water bowl or give him his food, he would look around and make cute little faces at me. I always smiled when looking after Henry and visiting his enclosure would always brighten my day a little bit, it was hard not to fall in love with the little guy. Unfortunatley when I was conducting my morning feeding and cleaning routine I went to his cage only to find him on the floor, dead. I don't yet know exactly what happened to him , however it is thought that maybe with his vision he flew into the door and that was enough to kill him as he was so small. I knew Henry was never going to be releasable but I watched him improve so much during my time here. When I first arrived he would only hop around the bottom of his cage but recently he had been flying around from branch to branch and it was a joy to watch.

The untimely death of animals is something I knew I would have to face when coming here. Sometimes animals arrive in such a bad state that euthanasia is the only kind option. Sometimes luck is just not on their side and they won't make it. I have to accept that not every animal that I look after will get it's second chance, but I didn't expect the death of such a small animal to affect me so much. It may seem silly to some that I am getting emotional over an owl but I did genuinely enjoy looking after him and the fact that I won't get to see him flying around his cage anymore has saddened me.

Onto the good news, I won't allow this post to be completely depressing. There was a lot of worry earlier in the week about a black bear that the shelter had previously released. It was sent out with a radio collar so it could be tracked, however when the readings were coming through it showed that the bear had not moved in over 24 hours and had recently been walking along train tracks. It's only natural to fear the worst in a situation like that, and I confess, despite not working with this bear or knowing anything about it I also began to worry for it's safety. A biologist was sent out to search for the bear and the news that came back to us was certainly cause for celebration. Apparently the bear had found a luscious patch of berries, and the area was so big that it had no reason to move, hence the stationary collar readings. The biologist also reported that the bear looked extremely healthy, so good news all around.

Peter also took me and the other Volunteer, Sally, up to the viewpoint. We drove the quads up half way, Peter leading with Sally and I following behind. I have only been driving the quad for a few weeks and have no previous driving experience so to say I was a bit terrified taking the vehicle on a real off road trail would be putting it lightly! On the upside learning to drive on London roads when I get home will be a piece of cake after this. The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking though, and we got to hear stories about previous years when Peter has taken volunteers up to the viewpoint and ended up face to face with grizzlies! He also said that last year there was around eight to ten feet of snowfall up on the hill and the dangers surrounding that much snow, so definitely no hikes by myself during the snowy months.