Three young black bear puppies in the Dryden area are now receiving 24 -hour attention in a rehabilitation center in southern Ontario.
The puppies were separated from their mother when their lair was accidentally disturbed by felling, said Mike Mcintosh, who runs the bear with the United States sanctuary by orphaned and injured bear puppies near Huntsville.
“We are quite sure that they have about eight weeks,” said Mcintosh, who called them Oscar, Oliver and Ozzy.
Usually, at this age, puppies would still be in the den with their mother. The eyes of the puppies are open, but they are not yet very mobile, he said.
“They crawl, fall, turn around, they hit their heads. They can’t lift their heads very constant because, you know, they are still very, very small babies,” Mcintosh said.
Bear puppies are too young to eat solid food, so Mcintosh said they are being fed with bottles.
“It takes a long time, but it is also stressful,” he said. Its sensitive digestive systems are still developing, and if they do not adapt to the formula, they could have potentially fatally fatal diarrhea episodes.
The goal is to eventually free the Bears to nature near where they were found, Mcintosh said. They try to preserve the natural fear of the bear to humans to make sure they can survive independently once released, he said.
“We have launched more than 800 bears to nature in Ontario since we started [the sanctuary] In the early 90s and these two will return to the Dryden district, “he said.
It is unlikely that the mother of the puppies will look for them again, said Martyn Obbard, a scientist of emeritus research of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
“At this time of the year, the female strategy, since it is a kind of long life, would be to abandon those puppies,” Obbard said.
The black bears that live in the boreal forest often dug their hairs under the roots of the trees or the trunks of the fallen trees, he said. It is rare for people to meet black bear denies and winter snow can make them difficult to detect.
“During my career, we hear about situations like this almost every year, whether it is a real site preparation. And there really is nothing that the operator can do about it,” Obbard said.
Few black bear puppies in nature survive until adulthood, he said. Approximately half dies in its first year.
“Given what happened to these puppies, it is an effort that is worth it for the sanctuary to try to rehabilitate them, and prepare them to be released as a year next year,” Obbard said.
