We reviewed the three yearlings and the nine cubs of 2018. Now, to finish the record of the year, we will review a couple of sad stories (unfortunately, not every rescue ends happily) and some “oddities” that occurred during 2018.

The first sad story was the death of Clementine Bear, which was covered in our previous post about the cubs. Her death resulted from an accident while she was living in a wild enclosure at ABR. We do all we can to protect our furry charges, but in trying to make their lives as “wild” as possible while they are with us, we must allow them to do the thing they most enjoy, climb trees, and occasionally an accident will happen.

The second sad story occurred in late August, when we received a 7-pound, seven-month-old cub that we named Flower. She never made it to the ABR facility because her exam and subsequent necropsy at UTCVM revealed a number of problems, any of which could have been the cause of her death.

The other sad cub story took place on October 28th, when we received a nine-month-old cub that had been hit by a car. She was named Serenity Bear. Though she was a good weight at 47 pounds, her exam at UT revealed internal injuries that couldn’t be repaired. As you know, we had other bears that recovered from car accidents, but Serenity’s injuries were simply too severe.

Now for the “oddities.” ABR is situated in the middle of prime bear habitat, so it is not unusual to see a wild bear passing through the facility. While they generally just move on, we had a couple of intrepid bears that actually were able to enter the enclosures.

The first of these we called Mr. Intruder Bear. He broke into the Wild Enclosure that housed the Six-pack. Curators spotted him on the enclosure cam and were able to contact TWRA to escort him off the property. The six cubs were snoozing on their platform after a busy foraging session, and didn’t even react to the presence of a “foreigner.”

The next bear to break in was a female whom we called Ms. Intruder Bear, or “Trudi.” She got into Wild Enclosure #4 and had many snacks before she was escorted off the premises. She was a larger and older bear than Mr. Intruder Bear.

Finally, there was another, we called Visitor Bear, who wandered around outside the fence. He looked like he would have liked to enter, but he didn’t. Better manners, perhaps? Of course the bounty of food that the curators provide to the cubs does smell delicious to the wild bears in the neighborhood, so it’s expected that they will be attracted to the facility.

This ends the review of all of the ABR bears of 2018. It is not likely that we will have any new residents during the winter, so the time will be filled with cleaning and construction projects to get ready for spring.