Orphaned black bear cubs returned to Banff National Park
Three female black bear cubs found in a Vermilion Lakes washroom last year have been returned to Banff National Park.
“The bears are now what we call yearlings — they ’re just starting the second year of their life,” said Bill Hunt, manager of resource conservation in Banff National Park.
“The bears, when they came to Banff following rehabilitation, were in the 50-kilogram range, which is very healthy for a bear of that age. They’ve been released into a remote area of Banff National Park.”
The bears were taken to the area early Tuesday and were released about midday after being collared and ear-tagged.
“We had a veterinarian there to help us ensure their health was assessed and provide fluids and that sort of thing,” said Hunt.
“They were then loaded into a helicopter sling load and flown into the backcountry of Banff.”
The very young bear cubs were discovered by a motorist stopping at the Trans-Canada Highway turnout overlooking Vermilion Lakes on April 1, 2017.
The bears were sent to the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, Ont.
“They were only about seven pounds when they arrived and they were on bottle formula for a period of time,” said Howard Smith, managing director of Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
“Once they transitioned to a more solid food, we moved them into larger accommodations.”
Parks staff don’t know how the cubs came to be in the washroom and couldn’t find the mother, despite checking wildlife cameras at the nearest underpass and spending 48 hours patrolling the area.
“It’s impossible to speculate how they got in there. We certainly believe that they had some help from a person or persons,” said Hunt.
“We would really encourage anyone who knows anything more about this to please contact us. We would like to try and resolve that, and we certainly want to discourage anyone from that sort of activity in the future.”
Parks Canada will be tracking the bears as they get used to their new habitat and set off into the wild.
“Survival of young bears in the wild is not always great. For these bears without their mother, those chances are a little more challenging as well. But I think we’ve done everything we’ve can to set them up for success,” said Hunt.
It is likely the three sisters will stick together for some time before going off on their own as they mature.
Meanwhile, officials from Glacier National Park, which lies on the U.S. side of the Alberta-Montana border, were forced to put down a female grizzly bear Sunday.
The bruin was partially paralyzed after falling about seven metres onto a road, about 1.6 kilometres west of Logan Pass. The bear was estimated to be between five and seven years old.