SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — A bear cub is now an orphan after it was left in a pet carrier at Bear League Tahoe.
The cub was dropped off the Saturday before Mother’s Day with a handwritten note, saying: “dear bear league please help Moses he doesn’t have a mother.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife helped find the bear a new home, according to spokesperson Peter Tira.
“It’s future is now in human hands, which is never an ideal situation,” said Tira.
The cub is estimated to be about two to three months old. It's now living at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Center, a licensed rehabilitation center.
“We want to keep the bear as wild as possible," said Tira, emphasizing a minimal amount of human involvement. "The best survival strategy an animal can have is to be fearful of people, so we don’t want this animal to get accustomed to people.”
The bear will be kept on a natural diet and taught to forage. They hope it can be released back into the wild once older.
Fish & Wildlife also had a message for the public: don't collect wildlife.
“Its never a good idea, no matter how well intentioned, for the public to be out collecting wildlife. We don’t know in this instance if the mother was, perhaps, nearby. It’s hard to know. It’s impossible to know. So by collecting this bear, no matter how well intentioned, we may have jeopardized this bear's life and ability to live as a wild and free bear,” said Tira.
Currently, Fish and Wildlife aren't investigating how the bear came to be dropped off at the Bear League, and they don't suspect foul play.
They said the leading cause of orphaned bear cubs is a cub's mother being hit by a car.
Fish and Wildlife asks people not to interact with animals and give their department a call instead.
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