GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Wildlife experts say the bear cub rescued in Asheville after being grabbed out of a tree for a photo is at a rehabilitation facility in Western North Carolina. It will be there for the next eight to nine months as it’s rehabilitated to be released.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resource Center reports that the group in the video seen taking the cub from the tree will not face charges because the cubs were released immediately.
FOX Carolina News spoke with the wildlife expert who went out to the scene, met with the group, and rescued one of the cubs in the video. “Our agency had a request to respond from the sheriff’s department for the county,” said NCWRC BearWise© Coordinator Ashley Hobbs. “One of our enforcement officers was first on the scene, and he asked me to join him as a little bit of backup. This was after the incident that you see on the video had already occurred, so by the time I got there, it was really just to secure the cub and see if we can locate the other cub and kind of get a hold of the situation.”
She continued, “When I arrived, that bear cub had been found on the edge of a retention pond, a little bit inside, the water on the edge of the retention pond. So, it seemed to be shivering. It was probably a bit cold, and it did seem to be favoring one of its paws at the time, so luckily, I was able to scoop it up pretty quickly. We got it over to one of our licensed rehab facilities here in western North Carolina that specializes in the rehab for bear cubs, and it got care right away. And I’ve been told it’s doing just fine in the rehabilitation center, eating well, drinking well, and it even has joined up with another bear cub that was orphaned earlier in the year. So it has it has a buddy as well.”
Hobbs explained the rehabilitation process that will take place for the cub over the next eight to nine months. She said, “During its care, it’ll get as little human or actual interactions as possible so that it doesn’t become associated with people. It doesn’t see people as a sort of food as well, so when it’s released sometime in the fall, maybe late summer, if it’s eligible for release, it’ll go out here in the mountains, here in North Carolina. And it’ll be an independent bear. We find that our rehabilitated bears, do very well upon release. They usually go find a den later in the fall, and they den through the winter, just as any other wild bear would.”
She explained that the limited interaction is why we will probably not see updates about the cub. Hobbs said, “Right, exactly. They try to be hands-off as much as possible and no unnecessary contact.”
While at the apartment complex where someone took the video, Hobbs said that she spoke with the group seen in the video. She said, “So we were able to make some contact initially. We talked about how dangerous it was, both for those people involved in the situation and for these bear cubs as well. You know, I let them know that we were taking the cub into a rehab facility and kind of spoke through the rehab process, just as you and I are now. And we were able to kind of talk about what their intentions were, and really hammered home that this was inappropriate behavior. And they should never approach any sort of wildlife like this in the future.”
We asked Hobbs about the second bear seen in the video and if anyone had called in to report a sighting. She said, “We haven’t had any sightings of the bear cub reported to us certainly. We spoke with staff at the apartment complex where the incident took place. They have my direct line, so as soon as they see something, they are going to let me know, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing if we don’t see this cub again. The female bear, the mother bear in this case, is a well-known bear around that complex. She frequented that area quite a bit, so there’s a good chance that the cub and the female bear have already linked back up.”
Hobbs said that she’s seen a lot of responses to the video. “I think for the most part, when people see this video, they’re frustrated because they know what these people did was inherently wrong. It was a wrong choice, and it seems like most people know what they should have done. Most people know that you should give wildlife lots and lots of space. If you want to take a picture of wildlife, use the zoom on your camera, it’s there for a reason.
For people looking for more information about bears or how to live alongside them, Hobbs suggests checking out BearWise.
Wildlife officials want to remind people not to approach or feed bears. Anyone who sees a bear cub that needs help or is abandoned can call the N.C. Wildlife Helpline at (866)-318-2401.
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