Bear cubs almost ready for release

Pair orphaned in Valles Caldera after their mother attacked runner

SANTA FE — When two orphaned bear cubs arrived in the care of a New Mexico veterinarian in mid-June, they were dehydrated and weighed little more than human infants, at 8 and 12 pounds.

The small bears had been plucked from treetops in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, where they had been wandering alone for several days after their mother was killed by state wildlife officers because she had mauled a marathon runner and, under a state regulation, had to be tested for rabies.

The motherless cubs would likely have died in the wild.

Instead, Dr. Kathleen Ramsay, owner of the Cottonwood Veterinary Clinic and a longtime wildlife rehabilitator, has been caring for the cubs, named Valley Girl and Cowboy, for the last three months at an undisclosed location where she is preparing them for release back into the wild in late October or November, when the height of hunting season has passed.

“The bears are doing absolutely fantastic, (and) gaining tremendous amounts of weight,” Ramsay said. “We are doing everything we can to mimic everything they will be doing in the wild.”

Ramsay, a native New Mexican, has worked with bear cubs for nearly 30 years, and, in that time, has fostered more than 600 cubs, she said. The numbers of abandoned cubs in the state can vary drastically each year, often depending on the climate.

The Valles Caldera cubs are among a pack of six Ramsay has this year. Four others — Aubrey, Opal, Clark and Judy — arrived in separate pairs in July, after their mothers were shot by Otero County landowners, who said the bears had threatened or attacked their dogs.

All of the cubs started on milk formula when they entered Ramsay’s care. But now, their weight has nearly quadrupled, thanks to the more than 45 pounds of vegetables, fruit and meal worms they each consume in a given week. Ramsay also hides acorns in their habitats to teach them how to harvest food once they are released.

The cost of this care, which takes nearly three hours a day, is $6,000 per cub.

Ramsay said she steadfastly avoids contact with the bear cubs during the rehabilitation process to keep them ready for the wild.

The mother of the two Valles Caldera cubs mauled a Los Alamos woman, Karen Williams, while she was running in an annual marathon June 18 in the Jemez Mountains preserve. The woman’s footfalls had startled the nearby cubs, triggering the mother’s attack. Following a 1979 state Health Department regulation that mandates rabies testing for any animal that attacks a human, wildlife officials killed the bear. Tests for the disease — which were negative — required brain samples.

The bear’s death caused an outcry from people who opposed the practice, including Williams, who said the animal showed no sign of rabies and was acting aggressively to protect her young. Williams and others have called for a change in the rule that requires rabies testing.