Just a few bear stories from the CEI

In the mid 1980’s, Paddington arrived, a very small bear cub in a very small cardboard box. He had been found by some loggers shortly after a forest fire. When the firebombing planes were dropping fire retardant on the blaze,  Paddington had been doused with it and, by the time he arrived with us was having strong convulsions.   I really didn’t think he would survive.  But Paddington did!  He was a very distinctive bear, a true cinnamon-phase black bear, his dark red/brown coat made him easy to identify once he had been released in Northern B.C.  Paddington was the only cinnamon-phase black bear in the area of his release and he was monitored off and on for 4 years by B.C. Fish & Wildlife, when they were in the area.  A really successful story!

Jemima and Juneau came to the CEI in May, 1999.  Their mother had been killed on the highway, near the town of EDSON. 8 to 10 days after they had been orphaned they were collected by the Fish & Wildlife branch and sent down to us. They were determined never to go hungry again!  We have enclosed a large   2 and 1/2 acre natural area full of trees for them to live in over the next 18 months, and built a 10 ft diameter circular  straw-bale igloo- like house for them to hibernate in. This enclosure, and the "igloo" has proven to be a great success.  Jemima and Juneau went to bed on December 16th, 1999, and got up on March 21st 20000. 

Juneau and Jemima were our 1999 orphans, since their successful rehabilitation release, we have received, raised and released a number of orphaned bears for more information check the Bearupdate.

Lima had a very rough start in life.  Shortly after his mother awoke from hibernation and she and Lima had left their winter den, she was shot. Although, it is illegal to shoot females bears during the Spring Bear Hunt, it does happen.  As result of this, some of the orphaned cubs who come to the CEI, and to other wildlife rehabilitation centers in B.C. and Alberta, come to us as result of the Spring Bear Hunt.  Obviously, if a hunter commits an illegal act by killing a female black bear in mistake for a male black bear the fist thing the hunter is most likely to do is to butcher the carcass and disappear. So Lima saw his mother killed and butchered on the side of the road.  He didn’t leave the site where his mother had been killed. He stayed and stayed, toddling about on the verge, until finally there were enough reports of him being seen at the side of the road that Fish & Wildlife went out to check out the site.  They found Lima, lying on the verge, nearly dead. Wonderfully, the Fish & Wildlife officer who found Lima followed the dictates of his heart and picked him up and brought him to the CEI. Lima was tiny, weighing only five pounds, desperately thin and dehydrated, a tiny, frightened scrap of fur. He survived, but bear cubs are deeply social little creatures, they need companionship of siblings or parent. He missed out on that because Jemima and Juneau ( the bears who had come to the CEI the year before) were too old and he was too small to put in with them. So Lima had a solitary upbringing as an ”only bear” although, until they were released, Lima could both see and smell Jemima and Juneau. Then, after Jemima and Juneau had been released, Lima eventually moved into their big enclosure and eventually, two years later, was released in the same area of Northern Alberta where we had released “the Girls”.

Lima, like Jemima and Juneau (the Girls) was monitored, post release using radio telemetry equipment. Jemima and Juneau wore radio ear tags provided by ZooCheck and WSPA in their ears, so Sian could follow their signals and monitor their post-release survival. Lima’s ear-tags were provided by Alberta Fish & Wildlife department so we could monitor him post release too. All reports on post release monitoring were provided to Alberta department of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD).

Orson, Pelious, and Paris were, in contrast to Lima, very lucky little bear cubs. They were minute little toothless things when their mother was accidentally killed by a very nice man clearing brush with a backhoe. They were lucky because, when he realized he had accidentally killed their Mum, he went into the wrecked den and found three tiny, tiny babies and rescued them. They were also lucky because they had each other. And they were lucky that the Fish & Wildlife officer he gave the cubs to, followed the dictates of his heart and brought them to the CEI!