A malnourished bear cub found with its dead mother near Tofino has died unexpectedly at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.
The tiny cub, who was rescued by whale watchers on May 31, has died of accidental asphyxiation, the centre said in a Facebook post Monday.
The rescued cub, who was named Malcolm, likely got his head tangled in a rope used to suspend buoys that bears in recovery play with, said the centre.
On the morning of his death, Malcolm was seen on CCTV cameras playing contentedly on the large tree stumps in his enclosure. In the mid-afternoon, when staff returned to check on him, the cub was lying immobile on the ground beside one of the stumps.
“Unfortunately, he had managed to get his head and neck tightly ensnared in a small rope handle attached to a plastic buoy that was suspended by a chain from one of the tree stumps. There were no signs of a struggle and we suspect he got his head through the loop and then very quickly asphyxiated,” the centre wrote.
Veterinary and animal care staff are “quite upset and shocked” at the cub’s death, calling it a very unfortunate accident involving an extremely rare set of circumstances.
Rescued bears spend a lot of time interacting and playing with the suspended buoys and there has never been “any hint of injuries or mishaps,” the centre said.
“We will take precautions to ensure that this scenario is not repeated. Anyone who has been involved in the care of animals can probably appreciate that these events or hazards are not always easily foreseeable. The buoy had been in Malcolm’s enclosure since he was first introduced. ... Caring for these special animals is an emotionally intense experience and we feel this loss profoundly. However, we will learn from this and be better at what we do.”
The orphaned cub had a rough start in its short life. John Forde and his wife Jennifer Steven, owners of the Whale Centre in Tofino, had been told about a cub hiding near the body of its dead mother in Ross Pass. On May 25, they went to the area and saw the cub lying on its mother.
The frightened, underweight cub was spooked and climbed high up a tree. Forde checked the adult bear, but there was no obvious cause of death. It was small but healthy and there were no signs of external trauma.
They came back the next day and walked slowly and quietly to the area. The cub appeared to be sleeping on its mother and it looked as if the cub had been suckling.
The cub took off into the bush, but Forde waited until it came back to snuggle into its mother’s neck. He covered the cub with his jacket and put it in a kennel in his boat. The cub was transported to the recovery centre.
“It was in really rough shape, very malnourished and to the point where they figure if we hadn’t got it that day, it probably wouldn’t have lasted another,” said Forde.
Recovery-centre staff believed the cub to be between eight and 12 weeks old. He was emaciated and hypoglycemic but showed good physical and behavioural progress while in care.
He was sedated on Oct. 18 and found to be healthy and in very good body condition. He was moved to a larger enclosure. The centre expected he would stay for about 18 months before being released into the wild.
- Louise Dickson, Times Colonist with files from the Canadian Press
