Malnourished bear cub found languishing near dead mother
TOFINO John Forde stood near the body of a dead female black bear as two little eyes stared back at him from a nearby bush. The orphaned bear cub was about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, extremely underweight and very scared.
Forde, who co-owns the Whale Centre in Tofino with his wife Jennifer Steven, had been told the day before about a cub hiding around the body of its dead mother in Ross Pass.
The couple jumped into their boat on May 25, along with a woman from the Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society, for the 45-minute journey to the area.
First, they used binoculars to spot the dead adult bear and saw a bit of movement in its fur. The cub was lying on its mother.
“I knew that without us stepping in, that this bear wasn’t going to survive,” Forde said Thursday.
After anchoring the boat, they went in for a closer look. The cub got spooked and ran into a bush before climbing high up a tree.
As the sun started to go down, they headed back to Tofino.
Early in the morning of May 26, they packed a dog kennel into their boat. This time, they moored the boat farther away and Forde walked very quietly to the area.
“The cub appeared to be sleeping on top of the mother and it looked actually like the cub had been suckling off of the dead mother. It was pretty rough,” he said.
The cub spotted Forde and took off into the bush, but now Forde had time to wait. He stood still until the cub eventually wandered out and snuggled back into the deceased bear’s neck fur.
Using a jacket, Forde covered the cub and was finally able to grab it, and put it in the kennel.
The couple contacted conservation officers and arranged to transport the cub to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.
“It was in really rough shape, very malnourished and to the point where they figure if we hadn’t had got it that day, it probably wouldn’t have lasted another,” Forde said.
Tawny Molland, animal care supervisor at the centre, said the male cub is between eight and 12 weeks old. It will stay at the centre for around 18 months before it is released into the wild.
“Every day we are seeing signs of improvement,” she said.