Watch: It’s been eight years since the B-C Government and the Northern Lights Wildlife Society agreed to a pilot rehabilitation program for orphaned grizzly bear cubs. Typically those cubs were put down…but that thinking has been slowly changing. Linda Aylesworth reports.
VANCOUVER – He has affectionately been named ‘Little Foot’ because during his two-and-a-half days journey from Fernie to Smithers he kept sticking his foot out the window of his transport cage.
Little Foot is the 12th orphaned grizzly cub that has been rescued since the provincial government changed the rules and agreed to stop killing the orphaned cubs. Before 2007 the government said grizzly cubs cannot be rehabilitated and released, but all 11 of the cubs before Little Foot have survived and thrived in the wild.
Angelika and Peter Langen from the Northern Lights Wildlife Society (NLWS) received a call from Conservation Officers on Saturday that a grizzly bear cub had been spotted on a ski hill.
They drove for more than two days to rescue him and bring him back to Smithers where he will be rehabilitated and released in about 10 months.
He weighed only about 48 pounds when he should weigh about 130 pounds as he is estimated to be about nine months old.
Angelika Langen says she is thrilled the provincial government is now helping to trap these cubs and to call the NLWS when they see a orphaned grizzly.
If you would like to help the NLWS care for these bears, you can donate on their website.
– With files from Linda Aylesworth
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