Loving Wildlife to Death

If you care...Please Leave Me BE!
(...or contact authorities if there is a true concern. Don't take matters into your own hands.)

Although the bear center does not have authority to handle bears in the wild, because of our line of work, it was quite common for us to receive phone calls from concerned citizens.

Here is how one such call unfolded…

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Me: Appalachian Bear Center, Daryl speaking.

Caller: I have a bear here you need to come and get.

Me: I'm sorry I didn't quite understand. What exactly did you say?

Caller: I said, I have a bear here you need to come and rescue! You need to hurry!

Me: Hold on ma'am... I can't personally come out and help you but I can get someone that can. Can you give me a little bit more information about what is going on?

Caller: Sure...there is a bear in my apple tree.

Me: {{{long unintentional pause}}}

Caller: You need to come get it.

Me: Why would we need to do that? Is there something wrong with the bear?

Caller: Yes.... it's by itself!

Me: Ma'am, bears are usually solitary creatures. Unless it is a mother with cubs they often live alone.

Caller: You don't understand… It's a cub!

Me: {{{Silently thinking… Yay, we are finally getting somewhere!}}}

Caller: Hurry up you need to come get it!

Me: Hold on ma'am, I need to get a few more details.... How big would you say he is?

Caller: He is about 20 or 30 pounds. Can you come get him now?

Me: Ma'am, the cub sounds to be of pretty good size for this time of year and it's not unusual for them to be left alone for a short time while mom goes out to feed. It's probably best if you just leave the cub alone and wait for its mother to return.

Caller: No! You need to come out here and get it right away!

Me: How long has it been there?

Caller: Since this morning.

Me: Ma'am, at this point we don't know if it is orphaned or not.

Caller: I know it is! That's why I called you.

Me: How do you know it is orphaned?

Caller: Because other bears are trying to come in and kill it!

Me: Excuse me?

Caller: The cub has been in my tree all morning and there are two or three other bears that keep coming to the tree trying to kill it!

Me: How do you know they're trying to kill it?

Caller: They keep trying to get at the tree.

Me: But ma'am it's an apple tree. Couldn't they just be trying to get at the apples?

Caller: They seem interested in the cub.

Me: Ma'am, it could be because one of those bears is its mother.

Caller: We're not taking the chance that it's not.

Me: We? ....who's "we"?

Caller: My husband and I.

Me: Where is your husband now?

Caller: He's outside protecting the cub.

Me: He's what?

Caller: I said, he's outside protecting the cub.

Me: Ma'am, what exactly do you mean by that?

Caller: I mean he's guarding the cub from all the other bears that are trying to come in.

Me: How is he doing that?

Caller: He's standing at the base of the tree. When one of the adult bears tries approaching, he scares it away.

Me: Ma'am, please have your husband come inside. One of those bears is probably the mother.

Caller: No it's not.

Me: How do you know.

Caller: They're all males.

Me: How do you know that?

Caller: Because they're acting all aggressive.

Me: Ma'am, please have your husband comes inside, if not for the cub's sake than at least for his own safety.

Caller: Oh...you don't have to worry about him.

Me: Why not?

Caller: He knows karate.

Me: {{{Silence}}}

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This is a true story. Fortunately there was a happy ending and I was able to contact authorities who advised the husband to go inside while the momma bear returned to retrieve her cub. Funny as it sounds, it's a serious problem. Each year, well-intentioned citizens cause the orphaning and potential death of thousands of our wildlife believing the animals are in need of rescue. Albeit, living in the wild can be a hard and sometimes dangerous endeavor, it's where wild animals belong and are best suited to survive...not in human hands. National headlines were made recently when a concerned citizen "saved" a bison calf in Yellowstone National Park. Fearing the calf was getting 'too cold', he put it in his vehicle and brought it back to Park Headquarters. Unfortunately when Park staff tried to reunite the calf with its mother, the female bison rejected it. This resulted in the calf having to be euthanized. I promise all parties involved were distressed at the final outcome.

If you truly care for wildlife, please let them be wild.