Our Bears - Ash and Ember

On March 31st, 2002, ABC got a call from Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). They had been called out to the site if a forest fire in Cocke County, TN.

It seemed that there had been a female bear in the process of moving her cubs from one den site to another due to the forest fire. In the process of moving the cubs, the fire fighting activity became to much for the female and she left two cubs unprotected on the forest floor. Several Forest Service fire fighters found the cubs.

They decided to pick up the cubs and ensure that they stayed warm. In the meantime, TWRA was contacted. Once the Wildlife Officer arrived on the scene he placed the cubs back in the same place hoping that the female would return for the cubs. Unfortunately, the amount of activity in the area was too much and she did not return after several hours.

At this point it was decided to call in ABC. The cubs were brought to the Center weighing 4 and 4.5 pounds. A rigorous schedule of feedings was put into place.  The cubs were fed a special milk replacer every four hours, 24 hours a day. The need to find a wild female to foster these cubs was very apparent. ABC staff knew that work had to happen quickly, as females would soon be moving out of their dens and then locating them would be very difficult.

ABC called our colleagues at The University of Tennessee who have helped us place females with cubs from their research population that wears radio collars.

All of these bears live inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had decided to place the cubs with two females who had been located earlier in the Winter. We were hoping that they were still in the same dens and that we could place Ash and Ember successfully. Ash went first, to a part of the Park near White Oak Sinks.

The female that had been located earlier had two cubs and was using a ground den. After a strenuous hike we located the den. Using a long pole we placed Ash in the den after applying Vic's Vapo Rub to her head to mask our human scent.

Ember was taken to her new den the next day. This one was much more difficult to locate and access! You can see by the pictures that this female had chosen her den inside a huge chestnut oak tree. Nearly 80% of bear dens in the Smokies are inside trees like this. The process of reaching the opening of the den required a fair amount of patience and a climbing rope.

Once we confirmed that the female was still inside the den, Ember was also given the Vic's treatment placed inside a mesh bag and hoisted up to a Grad student waiting near the den. Everything went smoothly and within 15 minutes, Ember was nursing from her new mother. The female was cleaning the Vic's off of Ember's head, accepting her as her own.

It is quite an amazing thing to see a female bear accept a completely strange cub into her den. Apparently the mothering instinct is so strong in these female bears that they don't seem to mind an extra mouth to feed. Yet another miracle of nature.