On Tuesday, April 16 a video was taken, in the video it shows a group of people harassing the wildlife. The incident took place outside an apartment complex in Buncombe County, North Carolina. In the video, posted by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, several people attempt to pull two black bears from a low-hanging branch. One person manages to grab a cub and appears to pose with the wild animal for a photograph. After yelling out, the person drops the cub and the animal is seen running along a fence as the person chases after it.
Rachel Staudt, a resident of the apartment complex where the event took place, told the Asheville Citizen-Times that she decided to start recording the episode after asking the other residents to stop pulling at the cubs in the tree. Ashley Hobbs, a biologist for the NCWRC and coordinator for BearWise, a nationwide education program to help people co-exist safely with black bears, told NPR that the cub seen running along the fence in the video was found wet and shivering in a retention pond near the apartment complex. The NCWRC news release said the other bear shown in the video has not been located.
At this time of year, mother bears are emerging from dens with cubs, who are dependent on their mother to feed and protect them, Game Mammals and Surveys Supervisor Colleen Olfenbuttel said in the release. By the time they are ready to emerge into spring, cubs, under 1 year old, typically weigh around 5 pounds, according to the National Park Service. “We did follow up with the people who pulled the bear out of the tree,” Hobbs said. “We did confront them on site that day and let them know how irresponsible and potentially deadly it could be for that cub to be separated from its mom, especially ripped out of a tree like that.”
For that reason, Hobbs warns that if you see a cub alone in a brush pile or even on your back porch, it doesn’t mean it’s actually in danger or need of help. “Most of the time, that’s not the case. So if you see a cub alone, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. And that’s why it’s good to give them lots of space.” If you encounter a black bear cub, give them lots of space, “back up and go in the opposite direction.” If you feel tempted to take a photograph, only do so from a distance. “We have to zoom on our cameras nowadays. Use the zoom if you want to take a picture,” Hobbs said. Commission spokesperson Anna Gurney told The Associated Press in an email on Friday that no charges would be filed against the people who disturbed the cubs.
