An orphaned bear cub was rescued on Wednesday after a pet dog in Virginia gently carried it home will be fostered out to a female bear nursing cubs of her own
Bill Bassinger, district wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the dog’s owner called a wildlife rehabilitator
Bassinger went to pick the bear up and fed it before it would be taken to the Virginia Wildlife Center.
“They care for it there,” he said. “We keep female bears with (radio) collars on for this very purpose — to foster orphan cubs.”
To find a mother, conservation officers will locate female bears and listen for cubs making sounds in a den.
Once a sow with cubs is located, a staff member places the orphaned cubs outside the den, and then the mother will more than likely adopt it.
Bassinger said the dog that found the cub carried it gently home and did not hurt the cub.