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| Late Night Coffee Run Endangers Bear's Life |
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| by Gregory Crofton, Tribune staff
writer www.savebears.org This bear was looking for coffee. A four-month old bear cub got an aluminum coffee pot stuck on his head early Saturday morning while rooting through a campsite at Fallen Leaf Lake. Deputies found the 15-pound cub with the pot on his head "walking in circles and bawling out for help" at 1:55 a.m. His mother, father and two brothers watched as he began to suffocate. While the cub was gasping for breath, the bear's parents got in a tussle and the two other cubs ran up a tree. The mother, who had stayed about 30 feet away from her cub during his struggle, left her cub at 2:55 a.m. That's when Tom and Cheryl Millham of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care arrived on scene to help the cub. "He was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning from breathing his own air," Tom Millham said. "He was not in real good shape - such poor shape that the other and two other bears started to leave." Tom and his wife put a heavy blanket on the cub and eased the pot off his head. "I expected him to jump and start acting wild, but he didn't," Millham said. "He moved very slowly like he was drugged." While Millham helped the cub, deputies monitored the situation with their guns loaded with rubber bullets in case the mother bear came rushing back to attend to her cub. But as soon as the coffee pot came off, the cub took a few deep breaths and took off in the direction of his mother. "Couple of breaths revived him immediately," Millham said. "The nice thing was that he went in the direction of his mom, like he was able to pick up her scent." |
Bears are a growing problem in El
Dorado County, according to Deputy Dan Brantley, one of two officers in the county who
train other individuals in bear aversion tactics. "I've been up here 14 years and I've seen a consistent increase in the population of both bears and humans," Brantley said. "Humans bring them in with attractants." Brantley helped institute a new bear aversion program last fall. Instead of being submissive, deputies are expressing dominance by yelling, rubbing their hair and standing tall before the animals. If that fails to drive bears away, deputies shoot firecrackers near the animal, and if need be, shoot rubber bullets or rubber buckshot. Brantley said the best way to keep bears away is to practice better waste management by putting garbage in bear-proof containers. But, he added, the containers are expensive and he expects it will take a lot to change the way humans deal with their garbage. However, the bear aversion program is beginning to help.
"It's been real successful," he said. "Bears are now running away when they
see humans. We can train the bears, teach them fear of humans and teach them
boundaries." |
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