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.
Image: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife .
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?
Image: Corey Hancock/used with permission
Photographer Corey Hancock has been exploring Oregon’s woods for over 20 years, but a recent hike took an unexpected turn. 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.
“I was in shock,” he recalls. “But initially I got a little scared. I thought I would get attacked by a momma bear somewhere.”
Not wanting to interfere right away, Hancock hid his gear bag in the brush and backed off to a spot where he could keep an eye on the animal while scouting for other bears. “I didn’t see any tracks or sign, but I waited,” he says. “I watched it from a distance, and the cub wasn’t breathing. It was lying on its back, pretty much motionless and getting rained on. I saw its belly rise just once. During the last couple of minutes, it stopped moving altogether.”
That’s when Hancock made the controversial call to take the cub back to his car, where he could drive to reach phone reception and figure out what to do. “It was getting dark, so I took my flannel shirt off, wrapped him up and just ran. I had no cell service, so I had to get to the highway. I immediately posted a photo of the cub on Facebook and asked for help and guidance.”
Hancock posted this photograph on his Facebook page, asking friends for any advice on where to take the cub. Image: Corey Hancock/used with permission
Help came from the team at the Turtle Ridge Wildlife Center, who told Hancock to bring the bear to their facility.
“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?’”
Hancock continued to pull off the road to administer rescue breaths every few miles, and eventually, things started to turn around. The tiny animal took a shallow breath, then another. Once at Turtle Ridge, the cub – who has since been nicknamed “Elkhorn” – was put on a heating pad and given several rounds of subcutaneous fluids.
Once at Turtle Ridge, the bear was put on a heating pad and given a warm blanket. Image: Corey Hancock/used with permission
“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.”
When Hancock called the next day, Turtle Ridge staff informed him that the cub had survived the touch-and-go night, and was now showing signs of recovery: vocalising, and attempting to stand and move around.
Images: Corey Hancock/used with permission
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.”
Blood tests will also be performed on the cub to check for diseases or any other health conditions that may have led the bear’s mother to abandon it.