Here is the complete story of how Rags Bear was captured. It is both heart-warming and heartbreaking.
Rags at UTCVM. He weighed only 9.24 pounds at eight-months-old!
What a tiny paw!
And what a tiny little foot!
He had a small wound on his back and is on antibiotics.
The curators set a small trap near his mother’s body.
He came out of the woods after the humans left.
He sat beside his mother, but didn’t enter the trap.
Townsend police stopped traffic so that we could bring in a larger trap.
The body of the mother bear was moved inside the trap.
Curator Katrina placed some food nearby.
Humans left the area. The gate to the trap is manually remote controlled, meaning that someone had to be nearby to close it. Curator Greg had to find a place to pull off the road that was still in range.
Rags came out again.
He wanted to be with his mother.
Rags entered the trap!
Curator Greg drove by to make sure that Rags was in the trap before he triggered the gate to close.
Traffic was stopped again, so that the traps could be removed.
The curators moved Rags into a small carrier.
Curator Katrina and a Townsend Police Officer.
Reunited! Rags and Scruffy spent the night in Hartley House.
They had to be separated to take their meds.
Scruffy was upset and angry.
He tried to tear the metal shield off the door.
Problem solved – the curators moved the metal shield away so the brothers could see each other.
In addition to being smaller, Rags seems more fragile than his brother. We hope that with time and good nutrition, he will make progress.
Scruffy climbed to the top of the climby thing and fell asleep.
Just by way of contrast and comparison – here are a few of the resident chonky cubs at ABR. It’s hard to believe that they are the same age as little Scruffy and Rags!