Time could be running out for three bear cubs left orphans when their mother was struck and killed by a driver in Sooke, says a rescue and rehabilitation advocate.
Ellie Lamb said the cubs are facing multiple threats, including cougars, wolves, coyotes, dogs and cars — and as more time passes, starvation and freezing temperatures.
“These orphans are lucky to survive the day and will not survive the winter,” said Lamb, who spent two decades in bear- behaviour education on the coast with both black and grizzly bears, including capture and rehabilitation. “If they do, sadly their body condition will kill them in the spring. It is what we have repeatedly seen with orphaned cubs left on their own time after time.”
Lamb said the three cubs have been “very visible” since their mother was killed on Nov. 14, with multiple sightings, and it baffles her that they haven’t been captured for rehabilitation.
Insp. Drew Milne of the Conservation Officer Service told the Times Colonist on Friday there is still a plan to capture the cubs for rehabilitation, and officers are ready to assist provincial wildlife biologists and the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.
“It’s been the plan since Nov. 14 and it remains,” said Milne, who didn’t reveal how the cubs would be captured.
It’s possible the cubs could be darted or lured with baited traps, but how and when will depend on the experts from the wildlife recovery centre and the province, he said.
A call to the bear rehabilitation centre in Errington was not returned on Friday.
Milne said the cubs are believed to be nearly a year old and seem to be healthy and foraging on their own. “From our observations, we’ve seen their scat with lots of vegetation and shellfish,” said Milne, who views it as positive sign they are surviving.
Attempts were made to trap the cubs a few days after their mother’s death, but they had climbed high in a large conifer overhanging the Sooke Basin, making attempts to dart them dangerous for both the cubs and rescuers.
The cubs climbed down from the tree before the high winds of a rare bomb cyclone slammed into the region the following week.
Milne said the Conservation Officer Service is ready to assist in any rescue, but its chief mandate is to protect people from dangerous wildlife and preserve wildlife by responding to poaching, which is prevalent at this time of year.
Lamb said the cubs are “very vulnerable” without their mother. She believes the rescue should have happened right after their mother’s death.
A witness of the collision’s aftermath told the Times Colonist last month the cubs were going back and forth between a woodpile and their dead mother and were feeding on her breast milk.
By the time a conservation officer arrived the next day, however, the cubs had climbed the tree.
Lamb said the young bears need their mother for warmth and protection from predators and to teach them foraging skills and how to den for the winter.
She said without those skills, their chances of making it through the winter are slim.
“They are staying in the community for safety,” she said, adding the sooner they are rescued for rehabilitation the better.
