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?