Orphaned, emaciated black bear, found near Barrhead, Alberta ...

The Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation says it has rescued a black bear cub, found alone and starving near Barrhead, Alta., and is working to nurse it back to health before releasing it back into the wild.

“We are guessing this bear was born last winter, so that means the bear’s under a year old and should really be weighing a lot more. He’s about 15 kg and the bears we released this fall, that were the same age, were about three times that weight,” said AIWC spokesperson Scottie Potter. “So he’s extremely underweight, very emaciated and very alone.”

AIWC staff suspect the cub’s mother was killed and without her help he was unable to find food and gain enough weight to go into hibernation.

He was brought to the centre — located near Madden, northwest of Calgary — by officers from the department of Alberta Environment and Protected areas on Dec. 9.

Without their intervention, he would’ve starved to death.

“A bear that isn’t hibernating is one who’s going to really struggle to find food and the proper amount of calories to get their body moving. Here we are able to give him all of the food that he would need in order to survive the winter without hibernating,” said Potter.

Because of his emaciated state, staff at the centre are slowly reintroducing him to food.

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“He is going to undergo what’s called a relief feeding schedule in order to get him used to food again,” said Potter.  “That’s to avoid what’s called refeeding syndrome. It is kind of like a shock to the metabolic system when nutrients are first introduced after an animal is in a starving state.  It can be quite dangerous.”

Staff will start by feeding the cub things like eggs and eventually introduce meats, fruits and vegetables until he’s consuming a normal diet.

He will also be kept in a specially-designed enclosure with space to climb and den and great care will be taken to prevent him from becoming habituated to his caregivers.

“Our care team is going to be putting together some puzzles and things for him to see if he’s able to acquire the food inside of them and we want to make sure he’s generally reacting to people like any other bear, ” added Potter.

In August the AIWC opened a new bear enclosure, called the Bear Den, to help with the rearing of orphaned bears.

If all goes according to plan, the cub will be released back into the wild in June 2025.

“We typically release our bears that have stayed over winter in June, so that gives him lots of time to gain all the weight he’s going to need,” said Potter.  “Plus we release them after the spring bear hunt so that is not a factor in his survival and gives him the absolute best chance of survival once he’s back out there in the wild.”

The centre is also making a plea to the public for donations to help with the cub’s care with information available on the AIWC website.

The government of Alberta’s ‘orphan black bear rehabilitation’ policy recommends that anyone who sees a bear cub without its mother leave it alone because mothers will often leave their young for periods of time to search for food or secure habitat — and the mother may still be nearby even if she can’t be seen.

If a person sees a cub they strongly believe to be an orphan, they are advised to call their local fish and wildlife officer.