orphan bear cubs returned to wild

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Nine orphaned Utah bears headed back home
Wildlife » The release was timed for when human activity is light
By Brett Prettyman
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 11/28/2009 11:05:57 AM MST



This orphaned black bear cub and its two siblings were captured by... (Idaho Black Bear Rehab /)
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Nine orphaned black bear cubs, rounded up by Utah wildlife biologists in the spring of 2009, will be released back into the wilds whence they came in the next week.
The nine, including a set of triplets, have been in two different bear rehabilitation facilities since they were reported to, and captured by, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
The triplets have been at the Idaho Black Bear Rehab center near Boise, Idaho. They were orphaned when a bear hunter mistakenly shot their mother on the La Sal Mountains east of Moab.
"He had watched the bear for a couple of days and determined there were no cubs," said Justin Dolling, game mammals coordinator for the DWR. "He went ahead and took the bear and

This orphaned bear cub captured by the Division of Wildlife Resources in the spring of 2009 has been at a rehabilitation center in Springville and will be returned to the wild. (Patti Richards/Great Basin Rehabilitation )
found out after the fact that it did have cubs."
Bear hunters are not allowed to kill cubs or females with cubs. Once the hunter realized his mistake he called the DWR and helped them locate the three cubs. The triplets will be released on Dec. 1 near where they were captured. It was not clear if the hunter was given a citation for shooting the sow bear.
Four other orphaned bears from the Manti Mountains in Central Utah -- three as a result of their mothers being shot and one found wandering alone -- have been cared for by Patti Richards of Great Basin Rehabilitation in Springville. Those cubs will be released in the Mantis next week.
State policy dictates that wildlife officials collect orphaned bear cubs and return them to the wild if possible.
Valerie LeBoeuf of Idaho Black Bear Rehab said the triplets are healthy and have already started preparing for hibernation.
Dolling said the cubs will be released together in the open rather than in a den as has been done in the past.
"This is kind of a new technique, at least for us," Dolling said. "Research has shown that within 10-14 days of a hard release that they will go out and den on their own. We picked this time of year

This orphaned bear cub captured by the Division of Wildlife Resources in the spring of 2009 has been at a rehabilitation center in Springville and will be returned to the wild. (Patti Richards/Great Basin Rehabilitation )
because there is the least amount of human activity in the forest."
brettp@sltrib.com
Rehab center works for bears
Data collected during the 20 years the Idaho center has been around shows that there is a high survivability rate among the nearly 200 bears that have been returned to the wild.
Nearly 84 percent of the cubs survived to reach 2 years old while 8.2 percent of the animals were taken by hunters within the first year of their release and 2.5 percent were taken by wildlife officials as "problem bears."
Twenty-eight bear cubs from Utah have made the trip to and back from the Idaho facility since 2000. The only cost to the state is transporting the animals. Both centers rely on fundraising to pay for
For more information on the facilities where the black bear cubs were carried for visit:
http://www.bearrehab.org /
and
http://www.greatbasinwildlife.org /