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A bear-rel of fun
Tiny cub makes its debut at Auburn area schools
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Wild Things staff is already having a bear of a time with their newest arrival.
A 5-pound black bear cub came to the Weimar educational center last Thursday via the California Department of Fish and Game. The center plans to use the yet-to-be named cub for educational purposes to teach people about bear safety.
The cub has made debuts at four area schools including the United Auburn Indian Community School and Rock Creek. Students at the Indian community school have been charged with naming the bear, which the center expects to happen sometime next week.
The now 8-week-old bear was found in the outlying area of Temecula. Two girls found the bear cub while they were walking on a rural road, according to Gabe Kerschner, director of Wild Things Inc., who said that he heard the story from the Department of Fish and Game.
The department determined that the bear could not be rehabilitated and released into the wild. As a result, they decided to release it to an education center. They selected Wild Things, which is a primary placement center for the department, Kerschner said.
Since then it’s meant interrupted nights of sleep for handler and “surrogate mom” Tamarah Roach. The tiny ball of fur has been staying at Roach’s home and sleeping in a crate. Roach said she has to wake up during the middle of the night when the bear is hungry and then receives an early morning wake-up cry at 6.
“It’s hard and you get scratched but when she’ll come up and sit on your lap and stare at you it’s all worth it,” Roach said.
Feeding the bear is a chore in itself, Kerschner said. She dines on a combination of rice, broccoli and other vegetables sweetened with orange juice or honey — but it’s the mess afterward that creates the real work.
“She doesn’t eat nicely like a sensible bear. She dives into her food and gets it all over the place. Then you have to bathe her,” Kerschner said.
Eventually the bear, which will gain more than 100 pounds in the next year, will be moved into a caged area complete with a pool, Kerschner said. She will be used for various summer programs to educate residents in wooded areas about bear safety.
Kerschner said currently there is a “very healthy” population of more than 30,000 black bears in Northern California forests.
He said he wants to spread the message that people should keep the population in mind. That means putting pet food inside, keeping cars inside garages and other practices to keep bears in the wild.
If he had his choice, Kerschner said he’d rather see the bear released into the wild.
“The saddest thing is this animal will be 300 pounds but live in an enclosure,” Kerschner said. “Hopefully, she’ll be able to do some good.”
He said Wild Things will make the best of her future and use her to help promote good for other bears in the wild.
“Her role is to teach people to live alongside bears,” Kerschner said. “She allows us to be a big draw for programs and school outreach.”
The Journal’s Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com or post a comment at auburnjournal.com.
bear cub, wild things inc., gabe kerschner, tamarah roach, united auburn indian community school, rock creek, black bears
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How did they determine that an 8 week old bear cub could not be rehabiltated and released back into the wild? Quit playing with it and let it grow up to be the wild animal that it is. If the bear was injured it would be a different story. At least send it to a real zoo and let it hang with the bears. It is a sad story indeed. This animal will probably hurt someone since they treat it like a pet.
chunga, These people at Wild Things are professionals & know what they're doing.
You're right I'll leave them alone. Cute baby bear!
Why did Fish and Game decide it was "non-releasable"? Idahoe Black Bear Rescue -IBBR-has rehabed dozens of bears this age and returned them to the wild. Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care received a 6 pound cub last year and it was released back into the wild in Feb. Using this cub "To Teach People to Co-Exist with bears in Lake Tahoe" is admirable but we live among bears up here on a daily basis and parading a cute cub around sends the wrong message. We have enough problem here with people thinking bears are cute and trying to feed them-which invariably causes their death. This poor "wild" bear is doomed to live her life out caged when the "cuteness" wears off. How many bear cubs has Wild Things raised?
Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care has been rehabbing wildlife in South Lake Tahoe for 30 years. LTWC has a permit, issued by Fish and Game (June 2000) to raise and rehab bear cubs in California.
They have successfully raised and rehabbed a baby bear cub which was only six (6) pounds last year and Idaho Black Bear Rehab, Inc. (IBBR) has been raising babies (5 pound cubs) successfully for more than 10 years.
For Mr. Kerschner to say that (paraphrasing) ‘You CANNOT take a cub this young and teach it all the things it needs to know and release it into the wild - - that is just not possible.’
It IS possible, and we have done it, as has IBBR!
The food ‘Wild Things’ is feeding that baby cub is wrong. She is too young for vegetables. How do these people really think, that by ‘seeing’ a ‘tame’ bear has ANYTHING to do with public education to show ‘HOW’ to co-exist with bears???
I am very upset to see the cub nursing on the man’s wrist. That tells me that she is NOT getting the right diet, because if she was eating the ‘proper’ food, she would NOT be sucking on everything between feedings.
Cheryl Millham, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, Inc.
So now we take perfectly healthy wild bear cubs, tame them, and condemn them to a life of captivity all in the name of education? The cub will follow her keeper and cooperate for a few months but as soon as she outgrows her cuteness and starts to bite and claw she will be relagated to a small pen and be nothing more than another sad caged animal. This is all very disturbing and curious as just last year an orphan cub weighing 5 or 6 pounds was taken to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, properly cared for, and then successfully returned to the wild nine months later. Why now is this cub determined to be too young? Hundreds of cubs weighing even less have been rescued, rehabbed and released in other areas all across the US and Canada. Cubs this age must be given a very specific formula, as close to mother's milk as science has been able to duplicate, since when does mother-bear milk contain broccolli? If the poor little thing even survives she will probably be deformed (there is no mention of any calcium for proper bone formation in the diet she's being fed)...but for heaven's sake, let's hope that she can somehow hang on until she's no longer cute and useful. Then it won't matter to these people anymore. She'll be just one more in a long line of wild animals whose natural, free lives are taken from them because humans remain selfish and ignorant beyond comprehension.
When will we learn? A wild animal is not a toy, to be passed around from hand to hand. I agree, once she gets to be too big and unmanegable, she will be regulated to a cage, instead of roaming free. You may as well put her in a one of those godawful roadside "zoos". Give her to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, which has the experience and facilities to raise her to be released. And it is obvious steelybob, that the people at Wild Things know what they are doing, feeding broccoli to a baby. Would you feed your baby vegetables with honey and orange juice on it? Get real and get this baby to someone who knows what to feed baby animals and wont treat them like a toy. By the way, did anyone determine what happened to this baby's mother???
I am glad the cub was found, but distressed Fish & Game choose to place it in permanent captivity. Yes, it's cute & yes the public will enjoy visiting and watching it grow. However, the comments that a bear so young can't be put back in the wild is false. IBBR has taken approximately 188 bears into the rehab program from many of the Western states since 1989. A good number of them have been this small and even smaller. None of the cubs this young or younger had any trouble "growing up bear" and taking their place back in the population without becoming the problem bear everyone says this bear will be. Given the tiime to grow and go through the stages of development this cub would do just fine back in the wild. That is what wildlife rehab is all about. I believe the fact we have only had 3 problem bears out of all the bears in the rehab program clearly shows there is every reason to try rehab. There are always scenarios like poor food supply, droughts, fires, etc. that can cause any bear to become a problem bear whether a rehab bear or a not. Rehab bears must face the same threats & trials as other bears, but that doesn't make them any more likely to become a problem. Assuming a cub this young will automatically become a problem is not a correct assumption.
It is definitely more difficult for a single cub & always preferable to have at least two cubs growing up togehter. However, that doesn't mean it can't be done and usually there will be more cubs showing up anyway. California has two rehabilitators capable of taking orphaned cubs so why wasn't rehab considered an option? I'm all in favor of education programs that will help people learn to live with and around bears, but taking a cub from wild that could be placed back in the wild is not the way to do it. There are places to get captive born bears. It's not necessary to take a cub from the wild who can be put in rehab & released back to the wild. I'm glad the cub was saved and is being taken care of, but very sad this bear will never know what it is to be a free bear in his natural habitat. I've come to respect and admire the spirit of these animals and the one thing I know without any doubt is that captivity, no matter how great the situation is not what a bear is about.
Sally A. Maughan
Idaho Black Bear Rehab, Inc.
To all you posters who feel you know better, how about starting your own wildlife refuge?
"All of us posters" either work for or volunteer for Wildlife Rehabilitationn Centers-we HAVE seen it done and know it works-so we DO know better!