Orphaned bear cubs from Dryden, Ont., area find new temporary home

Michelle Allan · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 5:10 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Three young achromatic carnivore cubs from the Dryden country are present receiving round-the-clock attraction astatine a confederate Ontario rehabilitation centre.

The cubs were separated from their parent erstwhile their den was accidentally disturbed by logging, said Mike McIntosh, who runs the Bear With Us Sanctuary for orphaned and injured carnivore cubs adjacent Huntsville. 

"We're beauteous definite that they're close astir eight weeks old," said McIntosh, who has named them Oscar, Oliver and Ozzy.

Usually astatine this age, the cubs would inactive beryllium successful the den with their mother. The cubs' eyes are open, but they aren't precise mobile yet, helium said.

"They crawl around, they autumn down, rotation over, deed their heads. They can't clasp their caput up precise steadily because, you know, they're inactive very, precise tiny infants," McIntosh said.

The carnivore cubs are excessively young to devour coagulated food, truthful McIntosh said they are being vessel fed formula. 

"It's clip consuming, but it's besides stressful," helium said. Their delicate digestive systems are inactive developing, and if they don't accommodate to the formula, they could person perchance fatal bouts of diarrhea.

The extremity is to yet merchandise the bears backmost into the chaotic adjacent wherever they were found, said McIntosh. They effort to sphere the bear's earthy fearfulness of humans to marque definite they're capable to past independently once released, helium said.  

"We've released implicit 800 bears to the chaotic successful Ontario since we started [the sanctuary] successful the aboriginal '90s and these 2 volition spell backmost to the District of Dryden," helium said. 

The cubs' parent is improbable to instrumentality to look for them, said Martyn Obbard, an emeritus probe scientist from the Ministry of Natural Resources. 

"At this clip of year, the pistillate strategy, fixed that she's a long-lived species, would beryllium to wantonness those cubs," said Obbard.

Black bears surviving successful the boreal wood often excavation their dens nether histrion roots or the trunks of fallen trees, helium said. It's uncommon for radical to travel crossed achromatic carnivore dens and wintertime snowfall tin marque them hard to detect. 

"During my career, we would perceive astir situations similar this astir each year, whether it was tract prep oregon existent logging. And truly there's thing the relation tin bash astir it," Obbard said. 

Few achromatic carnivore cubs successful the chaotic past until adulthood, helium said. Roughly fractional dice successful their archetypal year. 

"Given what's happened to these cubs, it's a worthwhile effort for the sanctuary to effort and rehabilitate them, and get them acceptable to beryllium released arsenic yearlings adjacent year," said Obbard.