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Bear cubs
Langley's Critter Care Wildlife Society has been looking after no less than 18 orphaned bear cubs since August.
Executive director Gail Martin says the centre doesn’t usually see cubs needing help until fall.
“We might get an odd couple early in the year – but never 18,” she said.
The facility is maxed out.
“We cannot take anymore,” she said. “That’s it for the year. We’ve reached our capacity because we don’t have the resources.”
The centre has provided care and rehabilitation for B.C. mammals for the past 30 years. Without any government funding, it relies heavily on fundraisers and public donations.
Bear cubs in particular are costly to care for. Having 18 bear cubs makes things even harder. Especially when they can eat 550 pounds of food a day collectively.
“It takes about $10,000 to raise a cub, and we get absolutely no funding,” Martin said. “We spend $2,000 a week alone on goat’s milk.”
The centre is aiming to raise $200,000 through its Save Our Bears fund to care for each cub until they are old enough and strong enough to have another chance to live in the wild.
Donations not only provide food and medication but also enriched environments to ensure a bear’s successful release. All the animals receive large portions of natural feeds as much as possible, including fruit, salmon and produce. Enrichment includes anything from logs to climb, honeycomb to discover, and berry bushes.
Martin said, sadly, most of the cubs were orphaned because of negligence of people not following Bear Smart policies to protect them.
“It’s a people problem, it’s not a bear problem, but unfortunately the bears suffer,” she said. “It’s very frustrating and it’s frustrating to the general public to see this happening.”
