The San Diego Humane Society on Friday announced that two orphaned bear cubs that arrived at the facility's Ramona location have been moved to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue after four months of rehabilitation.
The cubs were first rescued after being spotted wandering alone for several days without their mother in Calaveras County by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The brothers were around 5 to 6 months old when they were brought to the Ramona Wildlife Center for care and rehabilitation in July, according to the humane society.
"In wildlife rehabilitation, true success is always a team effort," Autumn Welch, SDHS Wildlife Operations Manager Autumn Welch said in a statement. "Our mission is to give every animal the strongest chance to thrive in the wild, and we're grateful to CDFW, Flying Tails and Sonoma for being such valued partners in that work."
Humane society officials said for 119 days, under the supervision of the SDHS' Project Wildlife team, the cubs received medical evaluations and behavioral monitoring. They were housed in a large, outdoor enclosure designed to minimize human contact to help develop their survival skills for when they are to be released back into the wild next spring.
"Monitoring the behavior and survival of these cubs will help inform future black bear conservation and management in California," Arjun Dheer, CDFW's Statewide Black Bear Coordinator said. "Black bears are remarkably adaptable animals, which has contributed to their presence across many of the state's diverse habitats. California has a stable population of about 60,000 black bears, the most in the contiguous United States."
The CDFW decided to move the cubs to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue to hibernate with two other cub patients. The cubs were flown to Sonoma from Ramona on Thursday by Flying Tails Animal Rescue.
The SDHS relies on donations for its rehabilitation work of more than 13,000 wild animals each year.
More information on wildlife rehabilitation can be found at sdhumane.org/wildlife.
