Bear Release

Yesterday I was invited to shadow my friend Bruce who is on the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife team on a hard release of 3 bears. Orphaned as cubs, these three bears were brought to an animal wildlife rehabilitation center and cared for, for 8 months until now. At this point in their young lives, they were healthy and strong enough to survive on their own and had to be returned to the wild to live their full lives. One of the orphans arrived at the shelter after being picked up by Fish and Wildlife with a broken paw. It was the only survivor to live after a car hit it's mother and another cub. During it's rehab, a surgical rod was implanted into it's paw and the strong young bones had healed over it all- as good as new.

When the rehab center fed the bears and cleaned cages during those 8 months, they didn't speak and wore dark hoods to help in an attempt to keep the bears as wild as possible. Yesterday, when I arrived and looked in the bear containers, the yearlings were spunky and edgy- even slamming their weight against the sides. They were ready to go.

Four DFW guys, including one biologist and 4 Kareilean Bear Dogs were on the release. The bear dogs are amazing working dogs and know their job well. The dogs bark like crazy to scare the bears and are specially trained for tracking loose bear and treeing them. Some dogs, like Mishka are actually cadaver dogs as well and assist in recovery missions occasionally. Not only are they smart and beautiful, but they are responsive and friendly.

It's kind of a hard thing to watch, but you know that it's in the bears best interest, so somehow it makes things better. The idea behind these releases is to give these bears the scare of their lives and traumatize them to the point where they realize that people are bad. It's humane, non-lethal and really works. The DFW guys load their guns with bean bags and shoot the bears in the rear if possible. It doesn't break the skin, only bruise (even then only sometimes) and teaches these bears to stay out of people's way. The bear dogs help frighten the bears. Observers are asked to shout at the bears, so they hear human voices while this goes down. All of this happens very quickly and the bears are flying into the woods away from all the commotion. Yesterday's release was perfect and as always, fascinating to watch. I learn so much hanging out with these guys about wildlife!

This is Savue. He hasn't been on the force as long as some of the other bear dogs, but he's very smart and knows his job. The DFW are trying to get more mostly white KBD's so that they can see them well when tracking bears at night or at dusk.

This is the bear that was named "Mean Dean". He was pretty sweet most of the time, until near the end when he jaw-popped and huffed through the trap.
Awwwwww....he doesn't look so mean here!
This is Mishka riding along in Bruce's truck. Mishka is one of the most senior dogs on the force.
The bears were released in an area closed to the public in a protected watershed.
Traveling as a caravan, we stopped for a couple minutes. The bears were getting pretty anxious at this point bumping along down gravel roads.
Officer B. Richards.
The release spot. Traps are checked. Guns are checked. Everything is staged.
Savue is encouraged by Officer Mozetter who says "Get that bear, Savue, get that bear." Savue gets really riled up and knows his job is to bark and make it nervous.
Mishka doing the same.
On the count of three....
There were two bears in one trap. In theses pictures the first is out, the second nervously coming out as well.
Look at the stare-down here between Savue and the second bear.
Run bears, run!
Finally the third heads out into the hills.