Orphaned bear cubs find a new home in Pike National Forest

Eight orphaned bear cubs are getting a new home somewhere in the Rocky Mountains west of Colorado Springs.

The cubs were abandoned at a young age, whether their mother bear was killed in an accident or had to euthanized after being deemed dangerous.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) takes abandoned cubs every year and works to get them back into the natural habitat. Over the course of the last few months, the cubs were put into an animal rehab center where they could mature before being let out in the wild.

KRDO rode along to see where four new cubs will be placed. Their location can’t be disclosed so they’re not bothered by people.

In order to get the bears to their new home, CPW has to drug them so that everyone moving the bears, is safe.

Each cub is placed on a sled and taken down a steep canyon covered in a foot of snow.

Tim Kroening, a manager for CPW says their new den is tight, but that’s it was designed to keep them warm.
“It’s 7×7 [feet] in there. It opens up a lot more. The door is fairly narrow but it does open up once you get in there and it dips down a little bit to give them some extra room,” Kroening said.

He’s the person responsible for taking the bear and maneuvering it inside.

The final step before leaving the bears is giving them what Kroening called a reversal drug. It allows them to wake up and move around inside if needed. That required most everyone to leave the area because the drug acts so quickly. Kroening said, “They can wake up in five to ten minutes.”

The hope is that these bears won’t ever come into contact with humans, thus living a new life on their own.