A bed-headed black bear cub that may have been orphaned by recent winter storms was rescued and transported to San Diego County for rehabilitation.
The San Diego Humane Society’s (SDHS) Ramona Wildlife Center took in a roughly 10-month-old female cub on Jan. 26. The young bear was found thin and abandoned in Bakersfield last month and was then rescued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
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To encourage the cub to exhibit natural behaviors, she will have a roommate in the form of a male black bear cub that arrived at the Ramona Wildlife Center in December 2022. The pair will be together for the next three months in an outdoor enclosure, where they’ll have access to trees, shrubs and other natural elements they’d find in the wild. With the outdoor space, they’ll be able to forage for food, climb and become acclimated to the weather.
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“As soon as they are strong and healthy enough, we want to return them to the wild.” Andy Blue, campus director of San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center, said in a press release. “The next few months will be crucial, because we don’t want these cubs to get comfortable around humans, so our team will be very careful to ensure their stay with us mimics life in the wild.”
With the addition of the young female bear, there are now five California black bear cubs under the care of the Ramona Wildlife Center.
According to SDHS, there’s been an “unusual” number of orphaned bear cubs that were found in the later half of 2022, making wildlife experts believe that heavy rains may have flooded dens and separated cubs from their mothers.
