KTBS.com

Posted: Oct 26, 2009 11:28 AM

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) captured an orphaned black bear cub in Morgan City on Oct. 22 and will be transporting the cub to the Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) center in Tennessee for rehabilitation and eventual release back into the wild in Louisiana.
The cub's mother and brother were fatally injured by a vehicle on Hwy. 90, just west of Berwick, on the night of Friday, Oct. 16. The surviving cub was seen on the side of Hwy. 90 for several days, but eluded capture.

"We lose several bears on that stretch of Hwy. 90 every year," observed LDWF Large Carnivore Program Manager Maria Davidson. "The woods come right up to the highway on both the north and south side, and bears crossing this busy highway don't always make it across safely."

The cub was sighted in a residential area off of River Road near Berwick, but became nervous when people began to gather and take pictures. The young bear then jumped in the Atchafalaya River and swam across to Bateman Island. With the cub outside a residential neighborhood, LDWF then abandoned the trapping effort and called off the searches.

On the following Saturday, however, calls to the Berwick Police Department again reported the cub on the side of Hwy. 90. LDWF initiated another trapping effort, enlisting the aid of St. Mary Parish and Berwick Animal Control.

"We used regular dog traps because they had numerous available which could be easily moved around when the calls would come in," said Davidson. "By Tuesday, callers were reporting the cub on Hwy. 182. We had good trap placement and really thought it would be a short time before the cub would be caught. Then the call came from Newpark Environmental in Morgan City on Wednesday."

Paul Mahfouz with Newpark Environmental reported that a small cub had been seen in a woodland area near their building since Monday or Tuesday. LDWF placed a trap at that location and captured the cub on Wednesday night.

The cub weighed approximately 25 pounds when captured, which placed it at risk to survive if left in the wild on its own. The rescued cub will now winter at the ABR center and return to Louisiana in the spring when it weighs 100 to 125 pounds and can survive on its own.

Based on the wide dispersion of calls associated with this capture event, LDWF biologists suspect there may be another orphaned cub in the area. Anyone sighting a small cub in or around the Berwick area should call the LDWF 24-hour hotline at 1-800-442-2511.

According to ABR's Web site at www.appalacianbearrescue.org, the cub will be placed on a commercial formula along with natural wild foods gathered by local volunteers. It will be housed with other cubs for comfort and companionship with minimum human contact. After an undetermined time, the cub will live in a one-acre bear enclosure with hardwood trees, natural dens and man made streams and water sources. In the bear enclosure, the cub will no longer see humans or receive human contact unless medical attention is required. Cubs will forage for their own food that is placed in the enclosure.

ABR states that their program is designed to make sure the cubs have attained at least 60 pounds in weight and that they exhibit normal foraging behavior, interacting and vocalizing with other cubs, and can demonstrate climbing skills, before being released into the wild. The cubs should also show positive bear behavior by staying in trees during the day and on the ground at night looking for food.

ABR has assisted in the rehabilitation of over 80 bears including three Louisiana cubs that have been successfully returned to state land. There are currently two Louisiana cubs under ABR's care which will return to Louisiana when the recently captured cub is delivered to the Tennessee facility.