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Bears rescued from "Bugaboo" fire near
Osceola National Forest
May 14, 2007
Contact: Karen Parker (386) 758-0525
It’s a Mother’s Day story with a twist…and a
happy ending.
A sow bear and her cub are resting comfortably
after a concerted effort to capture both animals Sunday.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) responded to reports of an injured bear with a
cub in the Osceola National Forest. The bear had been caught up
in the fire that raged through the forest last week.
When the bear capture team arrived on scene on
private timber land, off Sand Hill Road in northeastern Columbia
County, the sow was at the base of a tall pine tree. The cub had
climbed about 65 feet up the tree.
Three FWC biologists and the FWC veterinarian
assessed the situation and decided to sedate the sow and
determine how badly she was injured.
Dr. Mark Cunningham, FWC veterinarian, and Jim
Garrison, lead biologist at Camp Blanding Wildlife Management
Area, approached the sow. She watched them intently but didn’t
move.
The first dart hit a tree. On the second try,
Cunningham tranquilized the sow, and after 15 minutes, the bear
laid her head on the ground, asleep. The bear was loaded onto a
stretcher and brought to the road, where Cunningham performed a
preliminary examination and inserted an IV into the bear’s hind
leg.
"Her pads are blistered,” Cunningham said.
"Other than being dehydrated, she looks like she’s in pretty
good shape for coming through the fire.”
The cub, however, presented a different problem.
"Mom probably ‘woofed’ her up that tree, and she
was not going to come down anytime soon,” Cunningham said.
The plan was to bring the sow back under the
tree and see if the cub would come down to join her. The mother
bear was brought back into the woods with her IV bag hanging
from a burnt limb. After another 20 minutes, the cub still
hadn’t moved.
Cunningham decided to take the sow to the
University of Florida veterinary school. Officers helped him
load her into the back of his truck.
"I want to get her in the air conditioning,”
Cunningham told co-rescuers. "But to keep her under (sedated),
I’m going to give her additional drugs before leaving.”
To get the cub out of the tree, officers and
biologists came up with an assortment of ideas.
"We have to come up with ‘Plan B,’” Garrison
said.
The new plan involved clearing the area around
the cub’s tree and moving in a bucket truck that could reach the
cub. The FWC made calls, and heavy equipment rolled into the
area. A road was dug to the tree and the area around the cub’s
pine was cleared. During the clearing operation, the cub climbed
even higher into the tree.
"She picked the tallest tree in this section of
forest,” Garrison said.
Columbia County Public Works brought in a bucket
truck. After a quick lesson on how to operate the controls,
Garrison went up after the cub. He was three feet short of being
able to reach the animal.
"I have a jab stick. If I could get close
enough, I could sedate her. However, I just can’t reach her,”
Garrison said.
The dart gun was the next option. The first
three darts bounced off the cub’s hindquarters.
"The problem is that the cub is so small, she
doesn’t have enough fat on her for the dart to stick,” Garrison
said. "I’m going to have to try a more powerful dart gun.”
The new dart injected enough drugs into the cub
to put her to sleep. She slid down the tree and landed in a tarp
FWC officers were holding around the base of the tree.
"She was so light,” said Lt. Tim Kiss, training
officer. "There really wasn’t any weight at all when she was in
the tarp.”
Elina Garrison, research biologist at the FWC’s
Gainesville lab, estimated the cub’s age at about 3 ˝ months and
determined that the cub was a female.
"She’s very small and underweight,” Garrison
said. "She’s probably dehydrated as well. We’re going to have to
get some fluids into her.”
The cub was loaded into a wooden box and placed
in the biologists’ truck for transport to the veterinary school.
"There are a number of people to thank for
assistance in this rescue,” said Maj. Bruce Hamlin, regional law
enforcement commander for the North Central Region. "In addition
to all the FWC officers who were on scene all day with the
bears, we had help from a variety of agencies.
"I’d like to thank Mike Minton and Randy
Sherrouse from the Columbia County Fire Department; Paul
McCeithon and Wayne Ragans, Columbia County Public Works, who
ran the bucket truck; Pat Raulerson from The Forestry Company;
and Jack Kennedy and David Lyles, from MA Rigony in Perry, who
cleared the area in their skidders,” Hamlin said.
He said "A unique crisis like this almost always
calls for unusual partnerships and expertise to reach a timely
and successful conclusion. We all worked together to make this
happen.”
After the bears are rehabilitated at UF, they
will be released. Officials are in the process of determining
where the release will occur. |
