A cordial bear cub that had been living peacefully with chickens was recently rescued and brought to a sanctuary in Smithers, B.C. The 10-month-old orphaned cub was found in a chicken coop in British Columbia’s West Kootenay region and was severely malnourished, weighing only 10 kilograms when it should have weighed 30. The bear, named Tinsel, is now being fattened up slowly at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society. Angelika Langen, the society’s director, says Tinsel will need until the spring to reach a normal weight for a bear its size. She spoke to the National Post‘s Inayat Singh.
How is the bear doing now?
It’s stable. We are feeding it slowly. You have to be careful about what you give the bear right now, because it is undernourished. We are giving it porridge and milk right now. The bear is dealing very well and there are no complications. We hope to start giving him normal food by next week. That includes fruits and vegetables, fish and meat. We also have a special bear milk formula so it can get the nutrients it needs.
How long will it take for the bear to reach a reasonable weight?
We expect it to take until the spring. The bear won’t hibernate. It came in undernourished, so it can’t hibernate for the winter. It’ll need to keep eating through the winter while the other bears hibernate, but it should be caught up with them by the spring.
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Why didn’t it eat the chickens?
The bear was too small and weak to harm the chickens. In fact, the chickens would be able to hurt the bear. There were some large chickens in the coop, including a rooster that could be quite aggressive. The bear was too young to even see the chickens as something to attack.
Were the chickens looking after the bear then?
No, they were not looking after it. But they were certainly tolerating it.
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Is the bear a he or a she?
We don’t know yet. In order to find out we need to sedate the bear. When it came in, we were worried that the bear was so weak it would not wake up after being sedated. We will be finding out if it’s a boy or girl on Saturday.
Why was the bear named Tinsel?
The bear was found by a woman in the town, who spotted it in her neighbour’s coop. They named it. The woman’s husband works for the border police. They always assign “projects” to their work, and they named this Project Tinsel because it was close to Christmas.