The year-old black bear shyly sticks his muzzle out of the circular opening of the blue, tubular bear cage.
Sniffing the misty, cool air he glances at the stubby new growth that lines the gravel road in a clearing in upper Squamish Valley.
With a shotgun in hand, conservation officer Sgt. Peter Busink backs away from the metal grate door. The black bear stands up. The large animal jumps out of the cage, runs across the road and swiftly slips into the bushes; his shiny fur shifting in waves as he lops forward.
In seconds he's gone, engulfed by the dense forest. The only hint of his existence is the sway of tree branches he disturbed in passing.
Meg Toom hops out of the back of the pickup truck. The Squamish WildSafe BC community co-ordinator has seen this before after eight years of teaching people that, although beautiful, bears belong in the wild.
It's always a bittersweet moment. Both nature lovers say the bear's chances at survival are slim.
Nine months ago they aided the bear's transfer to Critter Care, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Langley. The black bear was the only surviving member of his family after his mother and two siblings were wiped out in a vehicle collision in Squamish on Highway 99.
Every year, Busink sends at least one orphaned cub to a wildlife care centre. It's a practice some conservation officers would like to see regulated to maximize the chances of successful re-introduction to the wild. With no firm records of the survival rates of re-released bears in B.C., Busink questions how humane the practice is.
As a cub, he had eight months with his mother eight months to learn the skills he needs to survive. Once in care, no matter how careful the centre's staff are, the animals become a little more accustomed to people, Busink said.
Every bear that comes out of a rehabilitation centre will be more habituated to people.
Unlike zoos, wildlife rehabilitation centres don't have provincial regulations to outline the bears' care. Busink has heard tales that the mammals feed on foreign fruits such as pineapples a meal no black bear would find in the wild.
Now fending for himself, the orphaned black bear will have to scout out food sources: berries, bumblebee and wasp nests and wild strawberries. By mid-October he'll need to eat 20,000 calories per day the equivalent of 50 hamburgers in order to bulk up for hibernation.
On top of this, the year-old cub faces battles with larger males claiming territory.
Left on his own, the orphaned bear would have likely died. There's a lot of public pressure to intervene, placing conservation officers in a tight spot, Whistler-based conservation officer Tim Schumacher said.
Sometimes we intervene with wildlife too much, he said. In my opinion, it is best to let nature take its course.
Critter Care is one of three facilities in the province to take the large animals and the only one in the Lower Mainland. In the past two years, the facility has seen 18 bear cubs through its doors.
At Critter Care, the black bear that Busink and Toom released was placed in one of three concealed pens, unable to view the outside world. The bears are kept in a quiet zone, coming into contact with no more than four dedicated caregivers per bear.
They don't even like us half of the time, said Angela Fontana, Critter Care's senior animal care supervisor.
A lot of effort is spent to encourage natural behaviour, Fontana said. Caretakers harvest the bears' natural food from the forest, sometimes spending hours picking dandelions and filling the pens' ponds with live trout. They then hide the food around the pen, teaching the bears to forage.
Critter Care bases its programs on the latest bear studies coming out of the United States. In order to take in the large mammals, the B.C. facilities have to be permitted which is a bit difficult to get, Fontana said, adding she wouldn't oppose provincial regulations for wildlife care centres.
Definitely, we have a set of rules.
Having cared for more than 80 bears, she said a lot of their skills are instinctive. In the past the centre's tracked orphan bears re-released into the wild. All of them fared well, Fontana said.
Mike Badry, a provincial wildlife conflict prevention co-ordinator, said how the province deals with orphan black bear cubs is evolving. The effectiveness of re-releasing bears into the wild after being raised in captivity has always been questionable, he said.
It is pretty difficult for us to teach a bear how to be a bear, he said, adding the Ministry of Environment works closely with wildlife shelters.
In a rehab facility you just want to make sure you are not messing that up.
Over the last four years the amount of time the province has tracked orphaned bear cubs sent to rehabilitation centres an average of 28 black bear cubs and approximately one grizzly are taken into care per year.
One of the issues with cubs is there is a limited amount of space, Badry said. All the orphans you come across, there may not be space for them.
If it wasn't for human attractants, a lot of orphaned bears would still have their mothers Toom said, noting the mother of the orphaned bear they released was hanging around Brackendale before her death.
I deal with people more than anything.
