He’s so small he can fit in the palm of her hand, but Judy Stearns can already tell the orphaned black bear cub she’s caring for is going to be a “tough, strong little bear” when he grows up.

“He’s really feisty,” said Stearns, the owner of Black Bear Rescue Manitoba. “When he wants his food, he’s just squawking.”

The two- or three-week-old black bear cub arrived at the Stonewall rescue organization late Wednesday, weighing just 1.4 pounds. He was dropped off by Natural Resources after someone in Devil’s Lake, located about three hours northwest of Winnipeg, moved some brush and accidentally disturbed a bear’s den.

The mother bear took off — it’s normal for her to flee if she’s feeling threatened in a situation like this — leaving her cub behind, Stearns said. After Natural Resources arrived on scene and made sure the mom wasn’t coming back, Stearns got the call that the cub would soon be arriving in her care.

He arrived that evening, healthy and in good condition but groggy and hungry.

“He didn’t have anything to eat and we advise people always to not give them cow milk or anything at home because it can really upset their stomach,” Stearns said, adding that while he was kept safe and warm, “he didn’t have his mother to cuddle up against.”

Out of sorts, with his eyes still closed and his ears still sealed shut, his first feeding was a bit of a challenge. Eventually, he accepted some milk replacement formula by syringe and then graduated to a nipple feeding system.

Now, he’s getting settled into his new home and “den” — a soft-sided cooler bag that Stearns and her husband keep warm with hot water bottles. He’s still “fragile” and needs to be fed every few hours, so Stearns has been working around the clock.

“Just like a newborn baby,” she said.

The little bear is one of the youngest Black Bear Rescue Manitoba has ever taken in. Typically, cubs they take in are a few months old, orphaned after their mother has been hit by a car or shot, usually in the spring or summer.

The cub, whose name will start with a “W” — the rescue organization goes through the alphabet and lets donors choose the final name — is expected to have a crew of fellow orphan bears in the coming months. Last year, the rescue organization took in 13 bears and the year before that, 32. Black Bear Rescue Manitoba is the only bear shelter/rehab in the province.

The group releases the bears in the fall, with GPS collars attached to make sure they’re denning and safe. By that time, the bears are usually up to 80 pounds, almost double the weight they’d be if they had their mom and were still in the wild, Stearns said.

“The bigger the better and the fatter the better,” she said. Orphans need extra padding to help give them the best shot at survival.

But Stearns has even bigger goals for little “W” cub.

“I’m thinking he’s going to be at least 160 pounds,” she said, noting the sooner the bears arrive, the bigger they are when they leave.

“He’s going to be a big boy,” Stearns said.

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Stearns said his care bill will total about $2,000 by the time the cub’s left the Stearns’ nest, she said.

The organization, a registered charity, is always looking for donations and Stearns invites potential donors to visit Black Bear Rescue Manitoba’s Facebook page or Instagram account. The group posts updates and videos about bears in their care on social media too, with 11,000 Instagram followers tracking the bears’ progress throughout the spring, summer and fall.

Soon enough, the little bear will be running, climbing and playing around with his orphan siblings.

But for now, he’ll probably just be taking a nap.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press.

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