Baby Bear Cub Update

It’s been a long year, but something of a miracle.

“The cub was actually found on the side of the road.”

Last fall we told you about a bear cub found with some serious, life threatening issues.

“She was not able to walk in a straight line and  that was the neurological question mark. She still has underlying things that we’re just  not sure of yet.” Explains Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake.

Since then a lot has changed.

“Against all odds she managed to go through  dehydration, starvation, and some strange neurological  condition and came out of the winter in good shape and  good weight and we were able to put her in with the  other bears so for us this is a great success story.”

Despite the recovery it’s still not known what was so terribly wrong with this bear.

“We never actually got a diagnosis on this girl. That was one of the things confounding our  veterinarian. These neurological conditions can be so  difficult to pinpoint depending upon what legs are  involved, etc. She came in here in such terrible, weakened  condition, anemic as well covered in ticks. We’re not  sure if it was secondary to all those things.”

She was so bad that she didn’t even hibernate last winter.

“They need a series of physical factors to be in  place: they need to have adequate food supplies, fat  supplies. These things didn’t happen for this bear.”

But all is well now and this bear is healthy and happy. She’s even made a friend.

“One of our older adults, Lucy adopted this bear. Lucy and Ethel. Lucy’s the baby.”

A happy ending for baby Lucy.