Bear Matters BC

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By Chandra Wong
Peace Country Sun Writer
Friday August 25, 2006

Peace Country Sun — DAWSON CREEK – The four grizzly cubs grumble and growl at each other as wildlife rehabilitator Leona Green tosses them a snack of alfalfa pellets, allowing me to take a picture of these unique orphans.
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“They make those noises to let each other know who’s boss,” said Green. “They’ll settle down in a bit. The grizzlies are pretty shy, so if I didn’t do this you probably wouldn’t see them at all.”

The bears’ moans and groans fade as they crunch on the pellets and I take my photos.

To keep these wild animals from becoming accustomed to humans, we retreat a distance from the pens that the cubs call home at the Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility, located on five hectares outside Dawson Creek.

The four grizzly and one black bear cub are this year’s batch of orphans that the 70-year-old grandmother is raising and expects to return to the wild next summer.

“All I really do is I give them a second chance,” said Green. “Then they go into the wild and it’s up to them.

“I do this to raise the (grizzly bear) population up. There’s not many of them left, especially in Alberta.”

Over the last 30 years, Green has rehabilitated about 100 black bears. Her count for grizzly bears rises to six with the four orphans. Of all the bears she has raised and released, she said not one has become a nuisance bear.

Local conservation officers brought the thin and dehydrated cubs to Green in mid-June. The first to arrive was a litter of triplets, two females and a male. A few days later another male was brought in. All are from the Tumbler Ridge area.

The cubs weighed only a couple kilograms at first, but quickly put on weight eating Green’s “bear mush,” a concoction of cereal, yogurt, milk, oil and vitamins and minerals. As the cubs regain their health and weight, Green switches their food to a typical wild bear’s diet of grains, fruit, wild game and fish.

Now each cub weighs about 16 to 18 kilograms, but Green isn’t certain because she has a “hands-off” philosophy about rehabilitating wildlife. She monitors the cubs closely, inspecting their droppings and watching their behaviour, but only handles them when absolutely necessary, like treating for internal and external parasites.

“Some people say if you’re going to rehabilitate, the animals have to be weighed every two weeks,” said Green. “Handling isn’t good for them.

“In my case it’s a case of clean ’em, feed ’em and then stay away from them.”

I look over at the pen and the cubs are now romping in their pen. They chase each other, push around a tire swing and climb up on their “den,” a large plywood box lined with straw.

Green changes the objects in the pen every day to keep the young bears active and stimulated. Watching from a distance she admits she often gets a laugh from the bears’ antics.

“They all have a different personality. I think it’s their intelligence that I like,” she said.

Each bear species has its own personality, she adds. Grizzlies are shy and will disappear as soon as they catch scent of a human, while black bears “are too nosy.”

The cubs will over-winter in their den, insulated from the cold by a thick lining of straw. Bears are not true hibernators and sometimes wake up in mid-winter from their slumber. Green’s den allows the bears to get up and wander around if they awaken.

Next summer conservation officers will release the immature bears as a group in the area they were found, but away from people. The bears’ ears will be tagged so they can be identified in the future.

The release is expected to take place during berry season so the bears can put on enough fat for the winter.

Green believes the bears “should be released at a time in their life when they are old enough to care for themselves but young enough that they adapt easily to the wild.”

“You don’t have to teach them anything. They’ve got millions of years of instinct and they know what to do.”

This isn’t the first time Green has worked with grizzly bears. In 1996, she cared for and released two orphaned female cubs. One of the bears was seen two years later, identified by its ear tag.

Green feels “very good” knowing her bears have been seen. As far as she knows, of the four other rehabilitators in the province licensed to handle bears, Green is the only one to have raised and released grizzly bears.

She credits her success in part to the support she’s received from the Peace region’s B.C. Ministry of Environment and conservation officers.

“I’m very happy with the wonderful conservation officers I’ve been working with,” she said. “They have backed me in so many ways. I can’t say enough. They have been wonderful.”

Green credits a conservation officer for getting her started in wildlife rehabilitation. A conservation officer, who was also a friend of the family, came to her with a snowy owl suffering from a concussion.

Familiar with exotic birds, cattle and horses, she took the bird in and cared for it until it was ready to return to the wild. Following her first success, other animals like lynx, foxes, deer, elk and wild birds were dropped off for rehabilitation.

Green said she stuck with wildlife rehabilitation for “the love of animals and the wild.”

This love and her own funds built the Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility over the last 30 years. Food and small cash donations have also helped.

Now Green only takes in wild birds and bears, which require less labour. At 70 years, she figures it’s time to enter semi-retirement.

“My family lives to around 100 years, so that gives me another 30 years,” said Green.

“How long can I keep up with this? As long as I can.”

Donations to the Hillsprings Wildlife Rehabiliation Facility can be made through the website: www.cowboyheadquarters.com/leonagreen