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Bear Rehabilitation CentersCaring for Victims of Hunting and Human Encroachment
While bear attacks on humans draw much more media interest, the damage done to bears by humans is being recognized and bear rehabilitation is becoming more common.
Already in 2007, bears have killed a boy in Utah and a woman in British Columbia. In both cases there was instant publicity. Bear attacks, although not numerous, are news. But there is limited media coverage when bear hunts throughout the world leave cubs orphaned every spring. Nor is human settlement into previously wild areas, resulting in less habitat for bears, particularly newsworthy. Luckily for the bears, there are people trying to balance the losses they suffer in these situations. Wildlife rehabilitation centers, some specifically built to care for bears, are now found throughout the world. Russia's bear huntIn Russia every spring, just as the bears are ending their hibernation, the hunt occurs. Bears are chased out of their dens by dogs and killed by waiting gunmen. Income in the thousands of dollars is generated. Sales of bearskins and fat add to the financial incentives for these hunts. Bear Rehabilitation in RussiaOften there are cubs in those dens. The cubs were once left to starve, kept as pets or sold to circuses. Now there is another option for them-Professor Valentin Pazhetnov and his family take in orphaned cubs for rehabilitation at the Clean Forest Biological Station. Orphaned cubs need to be bottle-fed, and therefore handled by humans for a period of time but once they are independently feeding, they can be left alone in small groups to develop foraging skills. The Pazhetnovs then take advantage of the cubs’ first hibernation to return them to the forest. In spring the cubs wake in the wild, away from heavily hunted areas. More than 100 cubs have been returned to the wild this way. And the techniques developed by the Pazhetnovs are being used in other areas of the country to help restore dwindling bear populations in Russian forests. US Bear Hunts and RehabilitationIn the US there are centers throughout the country that care for bears. Many of the animals in rehabilitation are affected by spring hunts just as in Russia. Others find their way into civilization when normal food sources fail, where they may be hit by cars or turn into nuisance animals. Lured by smells from trashcans left outdoors, hungry bears will become habituated to this easy source of food. Continued human development isolates bears into smaller territories increasing the risk of food shortages. In addition to caring for injured bears, a key job of the wildlife rehabilitation center is to educate the public on preventing problems with bears. Fewer bear problems means more bears left to be wild.
The copyright of the article Bear Rehabilitation Centers in Wildlife Rescue & Rehab is owned by Dawn M. Smith. Permission to republish Bear Rehabilitation Centers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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