Blog by Genevieve Arterburn

It was the end of September when we got our first call. The citizen on the other side of the line was concerned about a little black bear cub that seemed to be all alone with no mama in sight and was observed for several days. He seemed to be living solely off the tiny little crab apples, grass, and snowberries found in a residential area near Cascade Lake. It was a wonder how he was surviving off those alone, but it was certainly showing. This little one was only about 20-25 lbs. just by looking at him. All bear cubs are born at the end of January or early February. To put it into perspective for you, the bear cubs we had during the summer were the same age as this little one, and they were 80-90 lbs. when they were released in November.

The summer of 2024 seemed like a challenging one for all of Idaho’s wildlife. Due to the wildfires that were raging all across Idaho, wildlife were fleeing, abandoning their young and desperately trying to find food sources in the areas that were not burning. Unfortunately, a lot of wildlife were unable to escape from the fires. We think that this little 20 lbs. cub was either abandoned, displaced or had his mama die from the Lava Fire that covered the majority of the West Mountain Complex to the west of Cascade Lake.

Many, many calls followed after that about the same bear cub in the same residential area. The facility manager and her intern at the time set out to at least try to locate and get eyes on the cub. At the time, we did not realize how small this cub would be. Even Idaho Fish and Game did not believe the alleged weight of this cub. We had a general idea of where he would be, but this little one was nomadic throughout the neighborhood in constant pursuit for whatever he could find to eat. We searched and searched, and a kind neighbor let us know that the cub was in their back yard, so we were able to at least get eyes on him. After 4 hours of trying to bait the cub down from a tree, we finally had to leave when it got dark. However, we went back out there several times to piece together information from all the neighbors and to get an updated location on him.

We got approval to get a big enough live trap from Idaho Fish and Game to see if we could catch him, since all other methods failed. After a month of moving the trap around to different houses, a kind local was finally able to catch him in a coyote live trap that they had bought. They strategically placed the trap behind some bushes near a porch that the cub was living under. A few days later, we had an exciting call that the cub was finally caught and they were kind enough to transport him to Snowdon themselves. They even generously donated the coyote live trap so we could easily catch a bear cub in the future.

This little guy is one of the four bear cubs that are overwintering with us currently. They are affectionately named Jeff, Erin, Jay and Dr. Wayne after people who have made such a positive impact on Snowdon over the years. All of these cubs have very similar stories and came from places where the wildfires were the most destructive. They will be released early this summer just in time for them to properly learn to fish and forage for themselves in the wild!

Thank you to all of our supporters! Your continued support allows us to rescue injured and orphaned wildlife.