It's a 'bear' out there!

WOODVILLE — Meet Bart, the black bear cub.

Earlier this month, the undernourished, thirsty, tick-covered orphan survived three days and nights in a mulberry tree behind a house in southern Rappahannock County.

Area residents and state wildlife officials teamed to rescue the five-pound little guy July 5, transporting him to a teaching and research hospital for native wildlife in Waynesboro.

After a full exam by the veterinary staff at the Wildlife Center of Virginia and daily meals, Bart is now twice the size as when he arrived.

Next week, he goes free, and though still motherless, Bart is expected to be OK.

His is a tender tale of human watchfulness and kindness. His rescue also illustrates the importance of wildlife conservation and respect in a world where man and beast exist side by side.

That’s not a puppy
Jennifer Alcott of Woodville discovered the cub the morning of July 3 as she rode by horse on Eldon Farms, where she lives with her husband, Ron. She gave the cub his name.

At first, Jennifer thought the ball of fur walking in her lane was a puppy. Then he took off for the mulberry tree.

“When we first saw him, he seemed somewhat curious,” said Ron, noting that the cub, at one point, actually climbed back down the tree and approached a house pet. “He stood there checking out our cat and then, after a minute or two, scooted back to the tree and climbed up.”

The couple remained cautious, on the lookout for mother bear. But hour after hour, she never showed.

Worried about the bear’s size, Ron and Jennifer started making phone calls to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

“By the third day, he seemed to be moving slower … he was probably very lethargic from hunger,” Ron said. “He was eating mulberries, but it just didn’t seem like he was going to get enough to sustain him.”

Help arrives
By July 5, two state conservation officers responded to Eldon Farms. With the help of an animal control officer, water hose, catchpole and heavy gloves, Bart was coaxed down from the mulberry tree and placed in a container. But as shown on a YouTube video of the rescue, it was against his better judgment.

From there, Bart was transported to the home of Amo Merritt, a certified wildlife rehabilitator who lives in Rappahannock’s Boston area.

The cub was not happy to be in captivity.

“Very feisty and all claws,” said Merritt. “But you could tell that he had not had a decent meal. A little dehydrated, slightly emaciated and full of ticks.”

She fed him Puppy Chow and blueberries. As for what happened to Bart’s mom, that’s hard to tell. Momma bear could have been hit by a car or shot out of season. Or, the cub could have just wandered off.

“Bears can’t count,” Merritt said. “Unless you find a dead mom, there is really no way to tell.”

Usually, mom is around, she added, and so people are advised to stay away from cubs.

“Moms will move their babies every night, so with this guy being in the same location for about three days, I figured he was on his own.”

Wildlife Center of Virginia
The morning of July 6, Merritt transported Bart to Madison County, where he was picked up and brought over the mountain to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

“He is growing like a little weed,” said Ed Clark, president of the Wildlife Center and, coincidentally, a native of Flint Hill in Rappahannock County. “He’s actually quite the little handful.”

Center staff removed the ticks from little Bart, who weighed just 4.9 pounds upon admission, administered fluids and fed him a mixture of soft fruits and vegetables, moistened dog chow and baby food.

The cub was assigned patient No. 09-1503, indicating that he was the 1,503rd patient admitted to the Wildlife Center this year.

He was then placed in the center’s special bear pen, an isolated cinderblock building designed to keep him cut off from humans. Food is delivered through a tube in the wall that appears, unseen, from the outside.

Next door in the same enclosure — though kept separate to start — is another larger cub brought to the center in June from Highland County after his mom and sibling were killed by a car.

Two days later, after center staff determined both cubs to be disease-free, the internal passage connecting the two pens was opened, allowing the cubs to move freely, and together.
In charge

As of Thursday, Bart was up to 11 pounds, and “eating like a little pig,” said Clark, who co-founded the nonprofit Wildlife Center in 1982. And though only half the size of his roommate, Bart is in charge.

“The bear from Highland was about half-afraid of this new one,” Clark said. “When the big bear came and tried to eat, the little bear kept chasing it away.”

The two cubs were housed together, he added, because it’s crucial that Bart, like other wild animals, not habituate to people.

“They do not see their human caretakers at all, and if they do it is under very unpleasant circumstances,” Clark said, noting that the animals, of course, are never harmed, but they have to be handled roughly so as to establish that barrier.

He supposed it was some human factor that led to the orphaning of Bart, or the cub could have just gotten lost. Without intervention from the folks up in Rappahannock County, Clark doubts Bart would have survived.

The center once housed young bears that had made it through a whole year alone, but had only reached 10 or 15 pounds. They had enough food to stay alive, but not grow, Clark said.

A mother bear typically stays with its cubs for about a year and a half, he said, teaching them how to find food and what to fear. The center usually gets cubs in the spring, and in some cases they are reintroduced into the dens of other bear mothers.

In Bart’s case, however, it’s too late in the year for that.

Mr. Independent
Less than half a year old, he’s about to go it alone.

“The big thing is, they need enough strength and endurance to make it through their first winter,” Clark said.

In that regard, thanks to the rehab and sustenance received at the Wildlife Center, Bart should make it, said Jamie Sajecki, bear project leader with the VDGIF.

The cub will be released in a remote location with ample food sources — berries and, soon, acorns — that are not easily accessible by people.

Sajecki said Bart would likely end up on public land “behind locked gates” in a state forest. She plans to release him in the coming week and felt comfortable he would survive.

“This one recognizes the need to find food and is eating solid food,” Sajecki said. “We want them to learn their surroundings — what is natural.”

And yet, it’s “always tough when a cub is orphaned,” she explained, because it would normally stay with mom, under her care, for more than a year.

Still, Sajecki said, “A wild animal deserves to be in the wild. Plus, (bears) are really smart, and this cub is putting on weight. He has a better chance now that he has put on some weight.”