Our Bears - The Neonatals

In March of 1997 the bear center was presented with an extremely difficult challenge. An unfortunate incident left three neonatal cubs without a mother, each weighing only a little more than three pounds. It is an almost certainty that cubs this small need a real bear mother.

Our task was to provide not only a home but nourishment until surrogate mother were found; this was not easy. At first, ABC volunteers threw fits trying to get the cubs to feed from a bottle, but eventually we managed. Surrogate mothers were soon found in Virginia through a program sponsored by Virginia Tech Institute.

Once again it was time to part with our bears. Wild mothers with only one cub were selected since they are most likely to adopt orphans. Luckily, this was true and all three of our neonatal cubs were successfully adopted after a short stay at the Appalachian Bear Center. Although these cubs were with us for a very short time, this concluded a major test for the bear center and proved we could handle even the tiniest of cubs.