Smithers wildlife shelter rescues orphaned bear cubs near Fort St. John

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. —  Workers with a juvenile wildlife shelter based out of the lower mainland performed a daring rescue operation to save some bear cubs near Fort St. John.

Northern Lights Wildlife Society, a shelter for young wild animals based out of Smithers, received word on May 5th of a dead mother bear and a small group of cubs in a forest near Fort St. John and sent two people out to try and rescue the cubs.

The pair arrived after a ten-hour drive to find the three cubs stuck up a tree. A pair of employees with Canopy Keeper Tree Care in Fort St. John offered their assistance in an effort to get them down, but the cubs reportedly wouldn’t cooperate.

“The plan was to climb up there and sedate them, and then lower them down to the ground,” explains Trent Siemans, the owner of Canopy Keeper Tree Care and one of the people who attempted to help in the rescue.

“They kept climbing higher and to smaller and smaller branches, and they were like 15, 20 pounds, maybe? And I’m a lot bigger than that, so I was like, ‘well, I can’t go up any more.’”

Afterwards, the pair of shelter workers set up traps that would lock the bear cubs in cages where they could be taken to safety, and began waiting for them to come down from the tree. By 11 p.m. on the 5th, two of the three had been caught.

The third cub, however, took longer to come down. By 10:55 a.m. on May 6th, it was still up the tree, prompting the shelter workers to try a new strategy: removing the cub’s siblings from the area so it would come down to look for them.

This ultimately succeeded: the third cub was caught, and all three were reunited on the evening of May 6th. As of May 7th, they’re on their way to Smithers.

The Northern Lights Wildlife Society is a nonprofit organization that works to support young, orphaned and injured animals to grow and recover before returning them to the wilderness.

Outside of bears, the society has also supported other animals like foxes and deer. 

Before receiving word about the bear cubs, the shelter was running a “wild baby shower” fundraiser to purchase milk replacer for its young animals.

Anyone interested in learning more or donating to the society can visit its website.

Energeticcity.ca contacted the society requesting an interview to learn more about the process of rescuing the cubs, and did not immediately receive a response.