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Promising future for Sudbury's orphan cubs
The Bear With Us sanctuary in Sprucedale takes in orphaned cubs from across Ontario, and a third of the waifs currently housed there originate from Sudbury.
"I took in two from Sudbury a couple of days ago, plus three that came in just before that," said Mike McIntosh, operator of the Muskoka bear refuge. "And there were two earlier in the summer, so that's seven overall."
The latest two lost their mother after she was shot by police in New Sudbury on Monday, following a failed attempt to tranquilize the animal. Two others were captured after their mom was shot near Camp Sudaca, while another is presumed to be one of the cubs orphaned when its mother was dispatched, along with another cub, after a break-in on Muriel Crescent in the city's south end.
The earlier two were scooped up in June. One came from Garson, and was temporarily kept at the Wild At Heart Refuge Centre in Lively. Another was plucked from the Dokis First Nation.
The Sudbury Seven have been placed in the largest outdoor enclosure at the sanctuary, along with six others. Eight more cubs are housed in a separate enclosure.
McIntosh feeds the animals, but the facility is not open to the public and he tries to minimize even the amount of contact he has with the bears.
"They only see myself and maybe one other person," he said.
That's to keep them as wild as possible until they are released next summer, he said, although the motivation for that is less about protecting people from a habituated animal than protecting the bears from being perceived as a problem or a failed rehabbing experiment down the road.
"The bears don't become dangerous to people, even though that might be a notion some people have," said McIntosh. "But if one comes to a birdfeeder and gets close to people, like is happening this year in Sudbury, and it's a bear that's been in a rehab centre and has an ear tag, that can become more of an issue because people will say, 'that's a rehab bear, that's why he did it,' even though it might be behaving the way any bear might."
By the time they are released next July, these cubs will be "a year-and-a-half old, and the same age they would be when they part with the mother bear," he said.
In the meantime, the animals have a large wooded area in which to roam and interact. "They do everything normal bears would, except that they've got a fence around them," he said. "The enclosure these (Sudbury) cubs are in has a pond and a lot of trees and brush."
He sees them occasionally when he puts out food, "but I also set up a GoPro camera (at the feeding station) to make sure everyone is there, because I can't go in there and find them all," McIntosh noted. "They've got a choice to hide, which is good."
McIntosh said he recognizes most of the cubs individually, as "they all look a little different," but he also marks many of them. "The ones who look too much the same all have ear tags to make sure I don't mix them up."
And while some of the cubs might get accustomed to him delivering food, "if someone else shows up they would run and hide, because they have no idea who that person is," he said.
Once snow hits the ground, McIntosh stops the feeding routine to make sure the bears go into hibernation. Normally their mother would teach them about hibernating, but it's also ingrained in their biology.
"It's physiological," said McIntosh. "If they have lots of fat stores and the right nutrition, and then the weather turns nasty and there's no natural food, their metabolism slows down a bit and it makes them den up."
Wild bears make their own dens, but McIntosh gives these orphaned cubs a leg up by building plywood shelters and lining them with straw. They don't last from year to year, as "come summer they tend to wreck them, just for something to do," he said, so every October he seems to be building a new batch of den boxes.
During the hibernating period the cubs are much more calm, as well as happy to huddle up in a group.
"One year I had 20 bear cubs in one enclosure and I built three den boxes, thinking everyone will divide up and be nice and cozy," said McIntosh. "But they are sociable animals, so all 20 piled into one. They simply don't like to be separated from the rest of their buddies."
Now, he just makes "one big den box, depending on how many animals are in the enclosure."
The only time he checks on them is if "there is a mild spell in the winter and maybe some rain or freezing rain, and I go and peek in there just to make sure they are comfortable and aren't all wet," he said. "But I don't like doing that, because they hear my footsteps on the snow, and when I look in they're cornered, which is quite frightening for them."
The chance of the cubs surviving until spring is very good, particularly since they are getting a steady diet of food now from their keeper.
"I've never lost one during the winter," he said.
McIntosh noted even wild bears who go into hibernation with few fatty reserves will generally survive the winter, but risk dying the next spring after they emerge if they are too weakened and food is scarce.
The Sudbury cubs and their pals should be just fine, though, and their prospects for a successful return to the wilderness are rosy.
A study carried out through Cambrian College in the early 2000s collared 60 cubs placed at three rehab centres (including Bear With Us and Lakeland Lodge on Wanapitei), and tracked their movement and survival rate after release, noted McIntosh.
"They found they dispersed in different directions like a fan," he said. "A few were hit by cars, but generally there were no issues."
One cub released in the North Bay area showed up five years later in Quebec, the rehabilitator noted.
The animals are not radio-collared now, for the most part, but their fate can be partially determined through ear tags, which act as a "mortality indicator," he said.
"We definitely have a good success rate," McIntosh said. "And there are other studies that show that, if rehabbed properly, they have just as good a chance as any wild bear out there."
jim.moodie@sunmedia.ca
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