APPALACHIAN BEAR RESCUE THANKS OUR DONORS!
Aslan Foundation
Trushel Living Trust
and
Many Generous Individual Donors
Without your support, we could not offer world-class medical care to all ABR bears.
Your support proved especially critical in 2023, helping us save lives and give bears a second chance.
March 28, 2024: ABR Newsflash - ABR 397 Arrives
Just before 7:00 p.m. last night, Curator Haley received a call from Biologist Tristan Curry with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. A citizen in Pike County, Kentucky, found a small cub in a ditch on his property. His dogs found the cub first, and their barking led him to the little bear. The citizen immediately contacted Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and spent time looking for any sign of a mother bear in the area. No adult bear was ever seen.
Curator Haley and Dana shared the situation with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and headed out to meet Officer Curry. It was 2:00 a.m. when ABR arrived at UTCVM-University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine with the little bear. Dr. McDaniel and UTCVM student Monica Lee met us there and thoroughly examined the little cub. She weighs 2.87 pounds and appears to be healthy. We arrived back at the ABR Cub Nursery with ABR 397 just before 4:00 a.m. this morning. The new arrival has taken formula and Pedialyte from a bottle and is even willing to lap formula from a bowl. We are sad that she was orphaned so young, but we will do all we can for her.
We sincerely thank Officer Curry and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for rescuing the little bear and contacting ABR for assistance. We thank the concerned citizen for contacting wildlife officials about the bear and getting professional assistance. Finally, we thank Dr. McDaniel and UTCVM student Monica Lee for graciously seeing the cub very late at night. We know rounds start early every morning, making late night emergencies very stressful.
All other cubs and yearlings at ABR are doing well. Curator Tori will provide updates on everyone on Facebook Live tomorrow.
Please welcome ABR 397 Peeps Bear. Please keep Peeps Bear and all the ABR cubs and yearlings in your heart. You give them a second chance at live in the wild.
appalachianbearrescue.org/make-a-donation/ ... See MoreSee Less
301 CommentsComment on Facebook
Kentucky is very lucky to have Officer Curry who has been such a good steward of our Bluegrass State bears!
Welcome Peeps Bear and congratulations on being rescued in the best way possible for a little baby bear. You now have a better than average chance of growing into a big bear, and returning to the wild where you naturally belong. Thank you to everyone from the citizen who found her to the staff at ABR, and everyone in between, who have seen to the rescue of Peeps Bear. Praying for a great life for you Peeps Bear.
Someday when your body catches up to your big feets (and claws), you are going to be a force to be reckoned with. Best wishes for this journey!!
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ABR Daily Update-March 27, 2024-From Nursery to Hartley House! 🐻🐻🐻 ... See MoreSee Less
57 CommentsComment on Facebook
Are the vocalizations crying or warning?
JellyBean is an advanced little bear. Lapping milk from the bowl, climbing up the branch. He sure is vocal! ❤ Daisy Mae and Duke are coming along also, so happy to see them all thriving.
Hurray for Jellybean, DaisyMae and Duke! Jellybean’s sad crying scared my cats!
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We apologize for today’s delays. Our Nursery cubs are doing so well that they graduated this afternoon to the Hartley House!! We are so happy for Jellybean, Daisy Mae, and Duke Bear. 🎉🐻 An update on their progress will be posted shortly and regular Facebook Live updates will resume on Friday, March 29th. Thank you for your patience. ... See MoreSee Less
40 CommentsComment on Facebook
Awesome news!!! So happy for our cub kids!! Can’t wait to see them playing and wrestling together!!♥️🐻🐾
So happy to hear everyone is doing well!
So happy for the nursery cubs! Hartley House will be so great for them to play and grow!
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Please join Curator Tori for a Facebook Live update at 3:00PM eastern! 🐻 ... See MoreSee Less
3 CommentsComment on Facebook
Thank you Tori for all the work you! I check Facebook everyday to see how the bears are doing!
How do you get on the live feeds? Every week, by the time it shows up, I've already missed 3 minutes
Thanks soo much ABR for the Updates. 😃🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻💞💛🩵💚💜
March 26, 2024: Howling Winds - Howling Cubs
The winds were fierce in Townsend last night. Cove Mountain clocked an 85 mph wind during the night. Trees and power lines fell. We lost power, but our generators quickly had us back up and going.. This morning, we could evaluate the damage. There was a huge tree across our road and power lines. Otherwise, our bear facility suffered very little damage. We are grateful to the great team at Alcoa Electric. They worked all day to remove the tree and restore power. They even went to great lengths to spare our fence!
The yearlings spent the windy night in their den. Good girls! Daisy Mae, Duke and Jellybean were oblivious to the bad weather outdoors. Their Cub Nursery was just right! ... See MoreSee Less
64 CommentsComment on Facebook
Oh my goodness!!! That would scare me to death! She was VERY mad! So glad they’re all doing well and the older ladies took to den instead of treetops — good bears! Thank you to everyone for all that you do daily for these sweet however loud babies! 💕
Loved seeing the girls playing & running around. So cute!! Those little ones have some lungs!! So glad your facility did not have damage. All bears are safe & so are the people. ❤️❤️💙💙
I look forward to these updates every day. 🐻🤍
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ABR Daily Update-March 25, 2024-Cubs are a Handful! 🐻🐻🐻
Weather: 68F (20C) Humidity 19%, Cloudy ☁️
Duke, who hated Bear Replacement Formula, then decided he loved Goat’s Milk, changed his little bear mind this morning and will only eat Bear Milk Replacement Formula. The curators are happy to oblige as long as he eats SOMETHING! His sister, Daisy Mae, is still a fan of Goat’s Milk, making her the odd cub out as Jellybean is on “Team Formula”. Oh, and Jellybean, who wouldn’t poop, then did, stopped. The curators gave him a little bit of laxative to help move things along.
The cubs remind us every four hours, around the clock, that a mother bear and her children are a perfect union. Everything about her, from the thickness of her fur to the formulation of her milk is geared to protect, feed, and please her offspring. We are (as if we need reminding ) a distant second best. However, we will do what we can for these active, bouncy little bears, even if it means changing the menu at the last second for the tenth time.
Twinkle and Tinsel, our yearlings, spent the night on one of their ground nests. And that’s all we can say about them. We caught sight of Tinsel rushing to Wild Enclosure #4 to join Twinkle, but whatever they’re up to, they’re doing it in the undergrowth, away from cameras. If they’re digging an escape tunnel, we ask they be patient for a couple of weeks until their tenancy at ABR comes to an official end. Perhaps the girls will actually settle their account at the front desk before leaving. That would be a first! 🤔
❤️ Please consider donating to Appalachian Bear Rescue:
appalachianbearrescue.org/make-a-donation/.
🎉Our Visitor & Education Center at Trillium Cove is open! Please click on the link for more information: appalachianbearrescue.org/contact-us/.
🛑Bearwise.org offers excellent information on what black bears are up to at this time of year and what to do if you hike or live in “Bear Country”.
*We post one update daily, seven days a week. ... See MoreSee Less
59 CommentsComment on Facebook
Aww so hard to hear the baby cub cry, they are loud I was watching on my phone and my was wondering what is the noise 😬
Thank you for keeping them safe and giving them a second chance ❤️🐻❤
Would this age cubs, be playing in a den or would the mom have them out and about?
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ABR Daily Update-March 24, 2024- Good news! 🐻🐻🐻
Weather: 69F (21C) Humidity 32%, Moslty Cloudy ☁️
Good news! The cubs who wouldn’t eat now are, and the cub who wouldn’t poop has! 👏👏👏
The curators offered Duke Bear (he of the "cone of shame") all kinds of tempting treats and discovered he likes Gerber Baby Puff snacks soaked in water. Cubs can be finicky about food; our most infamous gourmand was Marvin Bear, who refused to eat anything that wasn’t a grape. Getting that cub to eat was a nightmare! However, he learned, and when he left ABR on November 9, 2015, he weighed 97 pounds. Duke ate a little of the soaked puff and then a little more, signalling that his feeding tube could come out. The tube was never meant to stay inserted for more than a few hours: little bears can’t cope with tubes or cones for long.
Anyway, the tube came out, the cone came off, and the gate separating Duke from his sister was removed. They celebrated by beating each other up, as is the custom of their people. We’ll repeat the theme we wrote about yesterday: we forget. We forget how crazy young cubs are. We forget that they are pure energy with big noggins filled only with thoughts about playing, eating, and wrecking. We wonder if that’s why mother bears keep having them every two years; they forget what daredevil dynamite they’re bringing into the world.🤔
Mr. Jellybean Bear (he who wouldn’t poop) rewarded the curators with many "tips." This cub is all about eating (thank goodness!), and drinks his meals with speed, if not pleasure. Eventually, when all three cubs are eating and pooping well, he will meet the Hazard Twins.
So, at present, Daisy Mae and Duke are eating goat’s milk (with mushy baby puffs for Duke), and Jellybean is eating Bear Milk Replacement Formula. They’re happy; we’re happy.
Tinsel Bear, one of our two yearlings, could smell something delicious in the ground. Black bears eat a lot of insects, and we fear these insects were on her menu. She, like all black bears, is a powerful and energetic digger. Twinkle came over to see what the fuss was about but gave the buggy appetizers a pass.
Thank you for helping Daisy Mae, Duke, Jellybean, Tinsel, and Twinkle Bear on their journey back to the wild.
❤️Please consider donating to Appalachian Bear Rescue: appalachianbearrescue.org/make-a-donation/.
🎉Our Visitor & Education Center at Trillium Cove is open! Please click on the link for more information: appalachianbearrescue.org/contact-us/.
🛑Bearwise.org offers excellent information on what black bears are up to at this time of year and what to do if you hike or live in “Bear Country”.
*We post one update daily, seven days a week. ... See MoreSee Less
69 CommentsComment on Facebook
Great news. I love this update ❤🐻❤
This is SUCH great news!!! “ Eat good and 💩when you can!!; stay healthy so you can someday be released into your beautiful outdoors “. Bless them. 🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻
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ABR Daily Update-March 23, 2024-Cubby Stuff
Weather: 55F (13C) Humidity 97%, Cloudy
We have three two-month-old baby bears in residence: Daisy Mae, her brother Duke, and Jellybean. We'd almost forgotten how much emotional and physical energy little bears consume; Daisy Mae and Duke won’t eat, and Jellybean won’t poop.
The siblings prefer wrestling to eating and remind us of the infamous Fighting Beary Triplets who’d been born beating each other up. Daisy Mae and her brother decided they didn’t like bear milk replacement formula (sigh!), but after some trial and error, the curators found Daisy Mae did like goat’s milk. Her brother did not. All furry residents are required to eat and poop while at our facility; it’s in the “Welcome to ABR” pamphlet and a prerequisite for a successful stay. The curators decided to take Duke to The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM), and Daisy Mae went along to keep him company.
The vets didn’t find any blockages, but they inserted a feeding tube, gave him goat’s milk, and released Duke back to our care. The doctors hope that having good food in his tummy will inspire him to begin eating. As soon as he does, the tube will be removed. He will be in the same pen as his sister but will be separated by a metal “wall”.
Jellybean is a different kettle of bear. Young cubs need to be stimulated to eliminate waste, but when the curator tried, Jellybean took offense and huffed and blew at her. He thinks he’s bigger and doesn’t need help to go potty, thank you very much. Unlike the other two cubs, he’s eating everything he can lay his paws on and is wrestling with Not-a-Polar Bear, winning every match. If Jellybean doesn’t deliver “the goods” soon, we have medicine to help.
Our yearlings, Tinsel and Twinkle, are taking care of themselves. They’re eating, wrestling, playing, and having a good time. We’re grateful.
We’re also grateful to Curator Tom Faulkner, who has been an integral part of Appalachian Bear Rescue since before its official founding in 1996. We don’t know what we’d do without him and ask you to join us in wishing him a very Happy Birthday.
Please consider donating to Appalachian Bear Rescue: appalachianbearrescue.org/make-a-donation/.
Our Visitor & Education Center at Trillium Cove is open! Please click on the link for more information: appalachianbearrescue.org/contact-us/.
Bearwise.org offers excellent information on what black bears are up to at this time of year and what to do if you hike or live in “Bear Country”.
*We post one update daily, seven days a week. ... See MoreSee Less
202 CommentsComment on Facebook
Happy Birthday Curator Tom! Thank you for all that you do and have done over the years! 🥳🎈🧸
Appalachian Bear Rescue about when will Tinsel and Twinkle be released? I'm not in a hurry to see them go, just curious. 💜
Happy Bearthday and Bear Hugs to you, Curator Tom!
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ABR Newsflash!-March 22, 2024: Bear #396 Arrives 🐻
We've just received another orphaned cub of the year.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) got a call last night about a bear cub crying on the front porch of a home in Hawkins County, Tennessee. A mother bear had been seen earlier with two cubs, one she was carrying in her mouth, while the other was trying to keep up. The TWRA advised the homeowner to leave the cub alone, as the mother would likely return for it overnight. Unfortunately, she didn't, and the crying cub was in danger of attracting predators, dogs, or dying of dehydration. TWRA Officer Ripley found the cub in a field near the house, picked him up, and transported him to UTCVM-University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine for examination.
The cub is a male and weighs a hefty 7.05 pounds (3.2 kg). He is in very good health and has a full set of baby teeth, indicating he may have been born earlier than our current residents, Daisy Mae and Duke Bear. He's also a feisty cub; he shredded Dr. Cushing’s gloves and scratched him a bit. The cub is in a pen of his own in The Cub Nursery and will receive the usual deworming medication. Please welcome Jellybean Bear.
Last night, Daisy Mae and Duke decided they didn’t like their formula and refused to eat. They were offered Pedyalite, which they drank, and since the curators were going to UTCVM to pick up Jellybean, Daisy Mae and Duke went along for a check-up. Their lungs are clear, and the doctors suggested we dilute the formula further and feed them every four hours instead of six. All three cubs will be on the same feeding schedule and the same 25% strength formula.
Twinkle and Tinsel, our big, beautiful yearlings, are fine. They spent the day foraging and playing, and if they’re aware of the arrival of three squally babies, they aren’t showing it. No one is asking them to baby sit, so they don’t have to worry.
ABR chose January 22 as the “official” birthdate for all bears who come to our facility. It falls roughly midway in the range of possible birthdates. We wish Daisy Mae, Duke, and Jellybean a happy two-month birthday, and happy fourteen-month birthdays to Twinkle and Tinsel. To all our past residents, wherever they may be, Happy Birthday from all of us.🎉🎂
Our thanks to the people who called about Jellybean, the TWRA, and the wonderful folks at UTCVM.We’ll post more photos of our new arrival tomorrow.
❤️ Please consider donating to Appalachian Bear Rescue.
appalachianbearrescue.org/make-a-donation/
🎉Our Visitor & Education Center at Trillium Cove is open! Please click on the link for more information.
appalachianbearrescue.org/contact-us/
🛑 bearwise.org offers excellent information on what black bears are up to at this time of year and what to do if you hike or live in “Bear Country”.
*We post one update daily, seven days a week. ... See MoreSee Less
245 CommentsComment on Facebook
Aimee Bates Hawkins his little face!
Appalachian Bear Rescue member from Australia 🇦🇺 here, so please excuse my ignorance, but will the Dr require any shots for rabies or other diseases because they were scratched? Not quite sure how it all works given we don’t have bears here. Thank you 🙏
Jellybean is a pretty sweet name of a feisty little bear! Welcome little guy.l🐻❤️So sorry you were separated from your mom and sibling...hopefully they are both doing ok.
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