Rescued black bear cub is in full recovery

By KATY SAVAGE
[email protected]
CHESTER, Vt. — An abandoned black bear cub, rescued by residents last weekend, is in full recovery at a rehabilitation facility in Lyme, New Hampshire.

The six-pound cub was found on Trebo Road about a week ago. It is living in an 8-acre enclosure with about 16 other bears on Ben Kilham’s property.

Kilham, a bear expert, has been rehabilitating and releasing injured, orphaned and abandoned black bear cubs since 1993.  He is in the process of establishing a nonprofit organization called the Kilham Bear Center.

Kilham sees 16 to 30 cubs a year, brought to him by fish and wildlife departments in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. This was the first cub Kilham had seen this year.

Kilham guessed the cub from Chester was born in January — the time most cubs are born.

Kilham said the bear cub was hungry when it arrived last Sunday night, but he was surprised the cub was as strong as it was. 

“Cubs don’t do very well if they get cold,” he said.

The cub was abandoned at least 24 hours, said Vermont Fish and Game Warden David Taddei.

The bear had climbed 30 feet up a tree when Taddei arrived in Chester in attempts to retrieve it after he got a call from a resident. 

Taddei gave the homeowners permission to handle the bear and put it in a crate — an unusual move, he said.

“It was small enough that we didn’t feel there was any real threat for injury if they grabbed it,” he said.

Taddei didn’t know what happened to the mother. There were no reports of dead bears in the area, he said.

“She may have been a first-time mom — they have a greater chance of deserting cubs,” he said.

The cub is being fed rice cereal with milk, kibble dog food, tree buds and apples. Kilham supplements the bear’s food with what’s available in his enclosure. 

He said the 8-acre enclosure contains wetlands, oak trees and pine trees — typical bear habitat. There are also natural and man-made dens for the bears to hibernate in during the winter.

Kilham takes in bear cubs between now and July. 

The other bears in the enclosure are all about a year older than the cub found in Chester. He releases bears back into the while when they are 18 months old — the age they would leave their mothers.

“The main thing is that they are socially ready to go back out,” he said.

Kilham didn’t yet know if the cub from Chester was male or female. Kilham said the homeowners requested it be named Trebo, after Trebo Road.

Kilham shortened the name to Bo.

Taddei cautioned the public to call a game warden before approaching wildlife.

“We don’t want anyone getting in between mom and cub inadvertently,” he said.