A bear cub was rescued near Heffley Lake and spirited away by various caretakers on a long journey to a shelter in Smithers on World Bear Day.
It all began on Sunday, March 22, when Heffley Lake locals found the black bear cub all alone.
Angelika Langen, executive director of the Northern Lights Wildlife Society (NLWS), explained that the locals heard the bear crying and observed it around 3 p.m. that afternoon. They decided to leave it for the night, hoping it would reunite with its mother.
“Then, in the morning, they didn’t hear much anymore. So, they went to look, and they found it lying on the ground and cold and unresponsive,” Langen said.
The wildlife society received the call reporting the bear around 9 a.m. on Monday, March 23. It was the first bear cub rescue of the year, and just so happened to fall on World Bear Day — a coincidence Langen noted as “really funny,” and something that hasn’t happened before.
After the society was given permission from the Ministry of Environment and Parks to move forward with the rescue, the Heffley Lake locals, who had been caring for the cub with a hot water bottle, transported the bear to the B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops, which offered to assist with an on-call veterinarian.
“We needed to get it to a vet as soon as possible because it was not responding well, and so (the Heffley Lake rescuers) said they could leave right away and could have it there within the hour, which they did,” Langen said.
They found the bear was in a hypothermic condition and placed it in an incubator to warm it up, and Langen said it did “really well.” They then began with the first couple of feedings. Despite being skinny and really cold, she said the veterinarian, in general, found nothing wrong with the cub.
“They warmed it back up and then started feeding it, and it bounced right back,” she said. “It’s a little male, weighs three pounds.”
Amanda Robinson, an NLWS board member, and her husband, Dean, picked the bear up in Kamloops for transport to Quesnel, while society staff members, Kim Gruijs and Kennedy Harvey, made their way from Smithers to pick up the precious ursine cargo and bring it to the shelter. She said they made sure to bring the proper milk for the “little guy.”
Langen counted up the distances travelled by the various drivers for the rescue, and said it was over 1,800 km. When The Clearwater Times spoke with Langen Tuesday afternoon, she said the bear was still en route to Smithers and had recently passed Vanderhoof.
Gruijs is a research assistant, and Harvey is a black bear caretaker for the society. Langen said they are both well-versed in taking care of the little cub.
“It sounds like he’s doing really well,” she said. “He’s eating really well, going to the washroom, which is always a concern when you get something that little. But everything seems to be functioning well. So, I’m expecting that just the regular care will be needed in order to give him a good chance.”
A bear cub was rescued near Heffley Lake and spirited away by various caretakers on a long journey to a shelter in Smithers on World Bear Day.
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The cub will be in the care of the NLWS until June 2027, after which he will be returned to the Heffley Lake area, away from humans, and will wear a radio collar for a year after his release for monitoring.
No name has yet been given to the bear, but there are some theme suggestions floating around. Once they pick a theme, the society will get in touch with the cub’s original rescuers so they can have a chance to name him.
Langen explained that the circumstances around the bear’s discovery were unusual. She said the five-to-six-week-old cub was not yet old enough to leave the den. He couldn’t walk properly and still has a blue sheen over his eyes, which they usually only have while in their den, so that they don’t see the light and try to crawl out while the mother is still hibernating.
“It’s just kind of weird. I don’t know if something happened, and the den was flooded, if there was a melt… and that mom moved some of the cubs, and this one was lost in the process, or if something disturbed the den, or mom died. I don’t know, I have no idea.”
Langen said she shared all the information with the ministry, which will look into what happened.
She said it’s “always amazing” how various interest groups come together to make rescues possible.
“It’s really a community effort and a community-based event,” she said.
Langen said the community will also be involved in helping to raise funds for the bear and help facilitate his release next year.