They’re smitten with the little guy – and they want to pay for his care.
The staff at Executive Suites Hotel and Resort has financially adopted the orphan bear cub that was found wandering on the resort’s property on Oct. 22. Thin and motherless, the black bear weighed only about 25 lb. at the time, according to staff at the centre now sheltering him.
Hotel general manager Jared Sissons said his staff was immediately concerned about the bear cub, who was seen scurrying across the parking lot, wandering around the Living Room restaurant deck and even peeking through the hotel front door at one point.
“My staff were really concerned about the little guy. He was so thin and shy…. You could tell he was hungry and looking for food,” said Sissons.
“When we realized that mama wasn’t around, we contacted Conservation. They knew about the cub.”
Conservation officers arrived, setting up traps – cages with food – and captured the young bear on Oct. 23, after which they turned him over to the Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley.
But that wasn’t the end of the story for the approximately 100 staff members of Executive Suites and other businesses on site, including the Living Room and Canadian Outback Rafting. Everyone wants to help out, Sissons said Friday. “We thought we should care for this little guy.”
Sissons spoke with Critter Care executive director Gail Martin and learned about the sponsorship program, allowing the employees to pay for the cub’s care until he is released back into the wild.
The employees are planning events to raise funds for the cub, who needs $250 a month to pay for food and supplies, but Sissons said he hopes they will be able to raise even more and help pay costs for some of the other bear cubs at the centre. Currently about a dozen animals are under its care.
“We think we can raise a lot more,” he said.
The events are expected to include a car wash and a community barbecue, and Executive Suites will also sell stuffed animals out of its gift shop with some of the proceeds going to help the cub.
The hotel also has a special booking rate that includes a donation for the bear.
Executive Suites is launching via Facebook a contest to name the cub and plans to share stories and updates about him. The hotel is also designing a bear cub mascot.
Martin has suggested the mother bear may have been killed in a car collision or during the spring hunt. The cub was likely born in January.
When he came to the centre, he was underweight and dehydrated, she said, but is now recovering.
“From something that’s tragic, we can make a positive,” said Sissons.
“Wildlife in Squamish is so important to the community.”
A bear is seen almost every week at Executive Suites, which has no garbage cans outside, an intentional move to deter bears from feeding on trash and becoming acclimatized to human contact.
The cub is expected to be released in June of next year, after the spring hunt. In the meantime, the cub has “a girlfriend” – a female cub sharing the same cage, Sissons reported – and is being fed skunk cabbage, grasses and even logs with ants, much like the food he would find in the wild.
“I hope he’ll be released back in Squamish,” said Sissons. “He knows the area a bit.”
He called on the community to help “get this bear back into the wild and have a long life.”
