Meet Gabby! She is an orphaned wild Louisiana black bear cub. She and her mother were both underweight, and then her mother was hit by a car.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries called us on Sunday with a request for assistance. We picked her up today to get her out of the area before Tropical Storm/Hurricane Delta makes landfall.

Even though an orphaned bear cub would normally be capable of surviving on their own this time of year, this little girl needs to gain weight or she would never survive the winter.

She will stay at Forest Animal Rescue for rehabilitation until spring. This will give her time to be restored to full strength and returned to Louisiana to be released back into the wild.

She is extremely afraid of humans (and reportedly hard to trap) and we will make sure she stays that way. Proper wild instincts will ensure her full rehabilitation and successful return to the wild.

Stay tuned for updates as she gains weight and prepares for her release!

Many people have been calling with this question.

Here are some answers that may make you feel a little bit better…

• YES, our facility is licensed to rehabilitate black bear cubs, but we can only take cubs brought to us by Wildlife Authorities
• YES, there were lactating females (sows) killed in the hunt
• Were there pregnant females killed in the hunt?
  • Technically NO
  • There were probably females killed that mated over the summer, however, bears have delayed implantation meaning that the blastocysts remain dormant and do not develop into embryos and implant in the uterus until November. This ensures that the young are born while in the den over the winter and emerge in the spring when food is abundant
  • If a female bear does not have sufficient body condition or the environment is not favorable to raise offspring, the blastocysts will be absorbed and no pregnancy will result
• Do the cubs left behind need our help or intervention….NO……why?
  • All black bear cubs are born in January & early February, making them about 9 months old at the time of the hunt
  • Although cubs will stay with their mother until their second summer, by 7 months of age they are typically weaned, although they may continue to nurse a little longer if Mom will allow it
  • By now, the cubs are eating an abundance of natural foods like acorns, palmetto berries and more, mother’s milk is not necessary for their proper development
  • They have already learned everything required for survival from Mom. Black bears do not hunt, they are opportunistic feeders with 85% of their diet consisting of plant matter.
  • Studies show that by their first winter, the yearlings know how to build a ‘nest’ with or without Mom, it is an instinctual behavior
  • They can climb a tree better than any of their natural predators in Florida and will do so immediately when threatened
• Should I go into the woods to try to find cubs orphaned by the hunt? NO!
  • Why? Out of all the female bears in the woods, only a small percentage were killed in the hunt.
  • Not only do the orphaned cubs not need our intervention, if you find a cub in the woods, Mom is probably right behind you!!
  • There are deer hunters in the woods right now – this is not a good time for people to be hiking around and inviting accidents when it truly serves no purpose
  • As stated above, the cubs are old enough to survive on their own. Bringing them into a captive situation simply to offer them food is unnecessary and increases their contact with humans. This puts them at higher risk of becoming nuisance bears and being killed after they are released
• When do bear cubs need our help?
  • Cubs that are orphaned in their first year often need professional intervention in order to survive if they weigh less than 30 pounds on or after August 1
    • In January & February – When they are first born they are tiny and helpless. They cannot thermoregulate and require Mom to take care of their every need. Any cubs orphaned at this age would certainly die without intervention, luckily Mom seldom leaves their side
    • As they begin to grow and Mom takes them out to forage for food in the spring and early summer, they still require mother’s milk and the family is moving. This increases the chances of being hit by a car or finding their way into people’s trash or attractants, learning to become nuisance bears. Nothing is more fatal to a bear than being ‘fed’ by humans. This will create more orphans than any other man-made threat
    • If the cubs are captured getting into garbage and are young enough to need intervention, they usually have a second chance. They can be rehabilitated and released into proper bear habitat for a second chance at growing up as a properly-behaving bears. As an adult, this won’t work for Mom – it is too late for her
• What can I do to help bears in Florida?
  • Share this page
  • Encourage your neighbors and everyone you speak with to contain their trash and attractants
  • Remember that “A fed bear is a dead bear” – and focus on preventing the largest preventable cause of orphaned cubs, nuisance bears created by people failing to secure their trash and bird feeders

This was the beginning of our black bear rehabilitation/release project – with an endangered Louisiana black bear. We named the little guy “Avonaco”, a Native American Cheyenne name meaning “lean bear.” He was a year old and only 15 pounds in January (he should have been 65-85 pounds)

After being with us for only two months, he has gained 48 pounds!

A second young Louisiana black bear was then found starving – crouched in a harvested sugar cane field, dehydrated and near death…he couldn’t even run away.

This one is almost 2 years old and weighed only 65 pounds. He should have been double that weight or more! He had wound up in an area with such poor habitat that his attempt to den for the winter failed. He simply had not gained enough weight to sustain himself.

We have named the new bear “Beau” – a goof Cajun name (since he is also from Louisiana) – and shortly after his arrival we introduced him to Avonaco. The are getting along fine and will both benefit from having a friend while they gain strength for release in may.

Although he is still thin, in less than two weeks he is already showing remarkable improvement!

Will you help us with the ongoing care of the bears in our rehabilitation program or to continue construction of our rehabilitation habitats as we prepare for orphaned cubs this summer?

Related articles:

Bear Freedom Project 2015

The orphan bear cub has a name!