Parks Canada euthanizes injured black bear cub in Jasper National Park for humane reasons

File photo. A sign along Highway 93 in Alberta, also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway and the Icefields Parkway, welcomes visitors to Jasper National Park. (Alex Antoneshyn / CTV News Edmonton)

An injured black bear cub abandoned by its mother in Jasper National Park has been euthanized for humane reasons, says Parks Canada.

In a recent national park newsletter, the federal agency said the cub — one of three belonging to a mother black bear — had lost one of its hind legs on Sept. 7 or 8 to a severe injury. The family had been spotted around the Jasper townsite on Sept. 9 with the injured cub — it was cinnamon-coloured like its mother and one of its siblings — but by Sept. 11, the injured cub was reported alone outside the town.

Wildlife specialists with Parks Canada determined the cub's chances of survival were extremely low and chose to capture, sedate and euthanize it for humane reasons.

“The injury was consistent with what we'd expect to find in a railway incident, but we can't point at that definitively without having witnessed it," David Argument, resource conservation manager for Jasper National Park, said in the newsletter dated Sept. 19.