Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Special Delivery"
by Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share of Washington member PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the February 11, 2004 edition of Wild Again
On January 13th, the PAWS Wildlife Center received a special delivery from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). All that could be seen of the "delivery" when she first arrived was her frightened face as she peered out from behind the bars of her transport carrier. The four-plus hour car ride likely seemed an eternity to this fuzzy yearling, and she had no idea what to expect now that the ride was over. She was happy to get out of the carrier and into more spacious accommodations, but she was quite fearful to be surrounded by a new, and still foreign, set of sights, sounds, and smells.
A bear cub arrives at PAWS in a metal transport carrier, and is then anesthetized for her initial physical examination. The cub was found starving and alone in Clatskanie, Oregon, and she was transferred to PAWS by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
She was left in peace to investigate her new surroundings, but her peace was interrupted the next morning when she was tranquilized for a physical examination. When she regained consciousness later in the day, she was back in her enclosure, and trees, logs, a den box, and other improvements had been added. It was still a cage, however, and a cage is not a place in which a Black Bear can ever truly be happy. Fortunately for her, this imprisonment was merely a stepping stone that was meant to lead to her eventual freedom.
The arrival of Black Bear 04-0065 from Oregon brought the total number of bears that PAWS has worked with to 43. It is unusual for PAWS to receive a bear in January, as they would normally be holed up in winter dens at this time of year. Bear 04-0065 should have been sleeping the winter away in a den with her mother, but something had obviously interrupted that, or prevented it entirely. Bears sleep through the winter for a reason, and 04-0065 discovered that reason the hard way. On the verge of starvation, she was captured by ODFW agents in late December when she wandered into the small town of Clatskanie, near Portland. In most cases, wandering into town is a death sentence for a bear, but in this instance it may have been the only thing that saved the bear's life. ODFW transferred the bear to PAWS since Oregon does not currently have bear rehabilitation facilities in the state. She will be cared for at the PAWS Wildlife Center with the goal of returning her to Oregon for a late March or early April release.