original article HERE by Luc Rempel for Castanet

Some rescues remind us just how much can happen when a community notices an animal in trouble and decides to help.

Earlier this month, an orphaned black bear cub was spotted wandering alone in Sicamous. Local resident Kyre Dawn Smith first noticed the young bear near Askew's Foods, where he was eating apples. With a nearby high school and people moving through the area, she stayed close enough to help keep people away while beginning the process of finding help.

After contacting the BC Conservation Officer Service, Kyre reached out to Northern Lights Wildlife Society. By the time help could arrive, however, the cub had moved on. That could easily have been the end of the story, but the Sicamous community kept watching.

Residents began sharing sightings and helping track the cub's movements. Several days later, on October 19, Kyre received another call that the bear had been seen in a local backyard. Together with other residents, including her daughter Pixie Rai Craven, Kathie Sider and Cheryl Goobie, they located the cub again in a group of trees and helped keep track of him while our rescue team made its way to the area.

For roughly four hours, the cub remained in the tree. Eventually he came down and entered the live trap, bringing a successful end to several days of uncertainty.

Castanet reported that the young bear was estimated to weigh approximately 45 to 50 pounds and appeared to have an injured paw. Once safely contained, he could finally begin the next part of his journey.

He also needed a name.

Pixie was given the opportunity to name the cub, following one of our naming themes, and chose Bourbon. We think it suits him rather well.

Bourbon will now spend the winter in our care near Smithers. Our immediate focus is making sure he is healthy, properly nourished and able to reach an appropriate weight for hibernation. His injured paw will also be assessed as he settles into care.

As with every bear that comes to Northern Lights Wildlife Society, the goal is not simply recovery. Our responsibility is to give Bourbon what he needs while ensuring that he remains a wild bear. Human contact is kept to a minimum, natural behaviours are encouraged and everything we do is intended to prepare him for life without us.

If all continues well, the plan is for Bourbon to return to the Sicamous area next spring. He is also expected to be fitted with a monitoring collar so his movements can be followed after release. Monitoring gives us another opportunity to learn how rehabilitated bears adapt after returning to their natural environment and helps us better understand the long-term results of rewilding.

What makes this rescue particularly special is how many people became part of it.

Kyre made the first call and kept watching. Members of the community shared information and reported sightings. People helped locate the cub when he moved. Others stayed at the site for hours until the rescue could take place.

Wildlife rescue often begins exactly this way. Someone notices that something is wrong and chooses not to walk away.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone in Sicamous who helped give Bourbon this opportunity. His journey is far from finished, but because people cared enough to act, he now has something every orphaned wild animal deserves when rehabilitation is possible: a genuine second chance.

For Bourbon, the next few months will be quiet ones. He will eat, grow, hibernate and prepare for the day when the door opens again and he can return to the forests around Sicamous.

That is the moment we will all be working toward.

Angelika Langen
Northern Lights Wildlife Society

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original article HERE by Luc Rempel for Castanet

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