Cub may have lost mom to wildfire
QUINCY, Calif. — Firefighters are keeping an eye on a lone, emaciated bear cub that may have lost its mother to the country’s largest wildfire now burning in Northern California.
The pointy-eared cub is seen rambling solo along a mountain road burned by the Dixie Fire near Taylorsville, peering through brush and leaping through plants covered in fire retardant chemicals.
“Generally when you see them with a sow or a mother bear, they’ll stay with the mother bear and run off,” said firefighter Johnnie Macy, who was deployed from Golden, Colorado, to battle the fire. “This bear hasn’t done that, so because of that we think that the bear’s orphaned as a result of the fire.”
Macy said on Sunday that they’ve been monitoring the cub for several days, to determine if it is an orphan. A wildlife rescue team was waiting to extract the emaciated cub from the burn-scarred area.
Gator handler recovering after attack
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah reptile center employee is recovering after an alligator yanked her into its enclosure during a presentation, thrashing her around before a fast-acting visitor leapt inside and helped free her from its jaws.
Video taken by a guest shows an unidentified handler at Scales & Tails Utah, in suburban Salt Lake City, talking to some adults and children about the alligator Saturday when it bit her hand and dragged her into the water.
Shane Richins, the company’s owner, said in an interview Monday that the handler was opening the enclosure to feed the alligator as usual, but this time the reptile “got a little extra spunky.”