Four starving, orphaned bear cubs rescued

A 15-month-old orphaned bear cub was rescued by the Bear With Us centre in Sprucedale, Ont.

Four malnourished bear cubs, each about 15 months old, are now in the care of Bear With Us after being found too weak to walk or flee.

The team with the Sprucedale non-profit says the first cub was discovered by a homeowner who spotted it in a nearby brush. They say the animal was so weak from starvation it couldn’t stand. The homeowner brought the cub closer to his home and called the facility. Mike McIntosh, who operates the facility, drove to retrieve the cub.

Just a day later, another call came in from a different area. The team says the situation was nearly identical: another lone cub, too weak to run. McIntosh again responded, carefully picking up the young bear and placing it in a crate for transport.

Two more cubs were brought to the sanctuary earlier in the week under similar circumstances. All four cubs are believed to have lost their mothers recently, though it’s unclear what happened to the mama bears. McIntosh said bear cubs should be with their mothers until about 18 months of age.

“If all was as it should be, the four cubs mentioned would still be with the mother bear. The cubs and the mother would part company in the next month or two,” the organization noted in a post on its Facebook page.

“We will do our best to help the four cubs pull through to eventually be wild youngsters,” McIntosh noted.

The Bear With Us sanctuary has cared for hundreds of orphaned and injured bears over the years.