He’s one tough little guy.
The orphaned bear cub discovered on the grounds of Squamish’s Executive Suites Hotel on Oct. 23 is doing well, according to his caretaker at his Langley rehabilitation centre.
“He’s in good shape, considering,” said Gail Martin, executive director with Critter Care Wildlife Society.
She said the bear was likely born in January of this year and was quite small for his age, weighing in at 25 lb. when he arrived last week.
It seems he was on his own for some time without his mother before he was discovered, Martin said, adding the mom could have been killed in the spring hunt or by a car months ago.
“He’s been out there a long time trying to survive on his own,” she said.
The cub was wandering in search of food she said and was becoming skinny and dehydrated when he was found.
“What happens is when there is food out there, for a while they do all right, but when the food starts to deplete, they aren’t going to go into hibernation, they are just too small,” she said.
Cubs usually stay with their mothers for two years, Martin said.
So far, the cub isn’t fully mixing with its enclosure roommate, but soon the two will sleep in the same cage.
“It usually takes a week to two weeks till they are actually in there sleeping with each other,” she said, adding that at first the cubs are isolated to ensure there aren’t any medical issues, then they move to the a larger enclosure with other bears.
This has been a rough year for bears in B.C., Martin said. The not-for-profit rehabilitation centre currently has 11 bears in its care and has cared for 14 bears so far this season.
“There is no food with the forest fires and everything this year; it has been an atrocious year for the bears,” she said.
Not all bear cubs have been as lucky as the Squamish orphan, Martin said.
Three cubs that came into care didn’t make it, including twins from the Chilliwack area.
“It was very sad. I don’t know how long they had been out there, but they had been eating plastic and everything to survive,” she said, adding the pair died in less than 24 hours of arriving at the centre.
“They are so hardy and you very seldom ever lose one.”
The Squamish cub will be kept until he is old enough to survive on his own and then released back into the wild, Martin said.
