Cub found along road recovering at shelter
Woman drives for more than nine hours to deliver cub to Cochrane rescue agency
The last time Brandy Gienger tried to rescue a bear cub in peril, the months-old grizzly named Groot was ultimately destroyed by provincial Fish and Wildlife officials.
So when the Grande Cache animal advocate came across a seriously injured black bear cub on the outskirts of the town near the B.C. border west of Edmonton last week, she drove for nearly a day with the wounded bruin wrapped up in blankets to a Cochrane animal rehabilitation facility.
“I didn’t want to take any chances,” said Gienger of the Grande Cache Animal Society, who was called out to a highway for reports of an injured bear cub.
When she arrived on the scene, she saw a mother bruin and two small cubs hovering in the area, before stumbling across the sixor seven-month old bear lying very still alongside the road.
“She looked dead — when we pulled up close she didn’t even move,” Gienger said.
“We realized she was alive so we picked her up and brought her back home. The next morning I took a nine-and-a-half hour drive to the Cochrane Ecological Institute.”
The cub, named Maskwa (which means bear in Cree), is now the second black bear to be taken in by the ecological institute in three months, thanks to the province slackening its policies to allow private facilities to take in orphaned bears.
In May, the agency took in a cinnamon-coloured black bear named Charlie, found just outside Coleman, malnourished and likely abandoned because of his small size.
Catriona Matheson, a director at the ecological institute, said Maskwa arrived in a lethargic state, unable to even hold her head up.
“We didn’t think she was going to make it,” she said. “But she’s an amazingly resilient little animal. She’s thriving now.”
It’s thought little Maskwa suffered a severe concussion and, like Charlie, both are safe in natural habitats where they’re well fed a diet of oats, flax, whole wheat and honey and allowed to grow and explore with little to no human interaction. Eventually, Matheson said, the duo will be introduced to each other in a larger enclosure with a pond and plenty of trees.
“Every baby needs somebody,” Matheson said. “We’re just really grateful that we now have two bears that otherwise wouldn’t have made it.”
Lisa Dahlseide, a wildlife advocate who’s also with the ecological institute, said while the province has made great strides in reworking its policies, there are still a few areas of contention, including the fact that both Maskwa and Charlie will have to be released by Oct. 15, the middle of hunting season, despite the fact they ’re still essentially babies.
“These two lives have now been saved as a result of the provincial changes, but there’s still some controversy,” said Dahlseide, who along with other advocates is slated to meet with the province in September to discuss their concerns.
“We would like to keep them for at least one winter.”
Ideally, said Dahlseide, rescued bear cubs would be allowed to hibernate normally in portable dens that could be moved into the wild while the bruins are sleeping, reducing the potential stress on them during their release.
As well, advocates are continuing to lobby for the ability to rehabilitate other orphaned animals currently barred by provincial legislation, including grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, bighorn sheep, and fox kits, among others.
The non-profit ecological institute is fundraising for its efforts to rehabilitate and eventually release the cubs into the wild. Donations can be made at gofundme.com/ bearcubsrescue.
We didn’t think she was going to make it. But she’s an amazingly resilient little animal. She’s thriving now.