“I gave him a few little rescue breaths” – Oregon Man Saves Dying Bear Cub, Giving the Little One a Second Chance at Life and a Future in the Wild

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The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that Elkhorn will be joining another small cub at a rehabilitation facility in Washington. A female bear cub arrived at ODFW’s doors on March 30, after its den was disturbed by a brush-clearing operation.

In that case, the mother bear was believed to have abandoned the cub due to the continuing disturbance, and it was determined that she was unlikely to return.

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When an Oregon hiker helped an ailing bear cub he found alone in the woods this week, he wasn’t prepared for the backlash that would follow. The rescue has reignited a complicated debate: just what is the “right” thing to do when it comes to interfering with nature?

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After heavy rain thwarted a trip to photograph waterfalls near the Santiam River trail, Hancock started back on the two-mile trek to his car. Along the way, he stumbled across a four-month-old black bear cub, seemingly alone and in poor condition, just a few feet off the trail crest.

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“In the car, the cub still wasn’t moving,” Hancock recalls. “I gave him a few little rescue breaths and watched his belly come out. And he just didn’t do anything. I talked to him, jiggled him, tickled his feet – anything to get a reaction. At that point I thought, ‘He’s dead. I’m not going to save him. What am I doing here? Why am I taking a dead bear cub out of the woods?’”

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“As he warmed up he started breathing a bit better,” says Hancock. “He was fighting to survive. I stayed there for about a hour. One of their staff members planned to stay up with him all night to watch him and try to get more fluids into his system.”

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The story was covered widely by local news outlets, and that publicity alerted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to the bear’s presence at Turtle Ridge.

“I went down to say bye to him, and he was growling and biting his cage – just a little ball of fury. He was acting like a normal bear,” adds Hancock. “ODFW got all my information about where I found him, and they plan to send one of their biologists to the area to look for a possible den, or any sign of the mother.”

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Elkhorn as he was found in the woods. Officials at both ODFW and Turtle Ridge have stated the bear was dehydrated, hypothermic and small for his age. Image: Corey Hancock/used with permission