Freedom!

Three small bears ~ likely born in January/February of 2016 ~ that were brought to The Wildlife Center of Virginia after being found in various states of distress ~ and also very undersized ~ probably because of losing their mothers very early in their lives ~ were tagged and released today by the biologists from the VDGIF (Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries). My fellow Friday volunteer Pam and I stayed late to "help" ~ mostly just because since we're now rabies vaccinated we can! This blip - taken on my phone through a hole in the trap ~ is the first of the three to be put in the bear trap that was going to transport them to their release point. She/he was waiting for his/her two compatriots to join her/him. The extra is the two VDGIF biologists starting to hoist the trap ~ now containing three bears ~ onto their pickup truck. There is a very short video of their actual release here. They didn't waste any time getting away from those crazy humans!

These three arrived at the Center (separately) sometime during this past winter when they were already eight or nine or ten months old. Having lost their mothers, probably at some point in the summer, they were small for their age and nearly starving. Having been fattened up they are ready for release now because of their age (now about 15 months) more than their size. The other bears we're releasing now are the same age but much bigger because they arrived at the center much earlier in their lives, as baby bears in the early Spring who lost their mothers right after emerging from their den. They've been with us for a full year or more and are enormous from good eating and easy lives! Hopefully all of them, big or small, will do well out in the wild world. We already have four little baby bears who will be with us until next April. And in all likelihood, lots more to come.

Typically young bears stay with their mother for a full year or a bit more, and then the males are turfed out and have to go find a territory of their own. Female bears often stay with their mothers longer and sometimes help raise the next set of cubs that come along. The young males are often the culprits when our bird feeders and trash cans are raided because they are trying to figure out how to be a bear and find their own food. Which isn't to say that adult bears are above stealing bird food... We had a mama with twins here last summer, you may remember. Looking at those photos I see that the bears released today were about the size of this pair, maybe a bit smaller. Which leads me to believe that they must have lost their mums in June or July last year and been struggling for several months before being found and brought to the center.