Officials: Bear cub yanked from tree recovering well
A bear cub yanked from a tree by a group of people in North Carolina to take a picture last month is doing well in a rehab facility, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.
The black bear cub, one of two pulled from a tree outside an Asheville apartment complex on April 16, was transported to the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge in Candler, one of two rehab facilities for bears in the state.
No charges will be filed in the case, which was closed last week by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the agency that investigated the disturbing incident.
The cub, now in recovery, is a female estimated to be 3-4 months old, Ashley Hobbs, a special projects biologist with the commission, told USA TODAY.
“The cub is doing very well,” Hobbs said. “I’m told it is eating and drinking well and has been partnered with another (male) cub that was orphaned earlier this year.”
If it meets health and behavioral standards for release, Hobbs said, the cub will be returned to the wild this fall.
A viral video of the incident shot by a resident in the complex drew a swift reaction on social media. The resident called maintenance, who alerted authorities.
The video shows four people trying to grab two cubs perched on a tree branch extending over a short fence to the apartment property. One of the women successfully grabs a cub and screams in excitement. Later, an animal can be heard shrieking and the cub runs along the inside of the fence, trying to climb it as the woman chases after it.
Hobbs said that when she arrived at the scene, one bear cub was wet, cold and alone, sitting in a retention pond. The animal appeared traumatized and was “favoring one of its front paws.”
Officials were not able to locate the second cub, which Hobbs said was not necessarily “a bad thing,” as the mother was likely to come back for the cubs after foraging.
As of Wednesday no charges or citations had been filed against the individuals involved in the closed case, Capt. Branden Jones with the wildlife commission’s law enforcement division told USA TODAY.
Under North Carolina law, “any person who unlawfully takes, possesses, transports, sells, possesses for sale, or buys any bear or bear part is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor,” punishable by a fine of at least $2,000.
“While dangerous and unfortunate, it appears to be an isolated event,” commission spokesperson Failey Mahlum told the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.
At least two online petitions aiming for stronger wildlife protection laws were created within the past several days and have generated thousands of signatures.
Retired wildlife biologist Lisa Karen Ward started one Change.org petition.
“We want to make sure everyone knows that they COULD have been prosecuted for this crime,” Ward, of Asheville, said. “We don’t want people visiting our mountains thinking they can get selfies with tiny bear cubs.”