Bear cubs safely caught after mother killed in GA, officials say. ‘Miraculous'
Two bear cubs were found and safely captured days after officials said their mother was shot dead by a resident in Georgia.
'The chances of them both being caught together like that are nothing short of miraculous,' Bent Tree Safety & Emergency Management said in a May 22 post on Facebook.
According to the agency, a passerby reported seeing what looked like a dead mother bear with the two bear cubs May 16 in the Oglethorpe Mountain Road area.
Investigators later learned that a resident fired a gun at the bear, officials said in a May 21 Facebook post.
The man said the bear came to his home twice May 15 and that he felt unsafe and shot at it on its third visit, according to officials.
The man said he had tried to scare the bear away the first two times, officials said.
He texted a video of the bear swiping his door to an off-duty Bent Tree Public Safety employee and asked if he could shoot the bear, officials said. The employee said to not shoot the bear and advised him to call Public Safety to scare it away, officials said, adding that what likely attracted the bear to the man's home were food items, including cat food and unclean grills.
Charges related to the shooting were filed against the man, who was not publicly identified, officials said.
Bear cubs found safe
Since the death of the mother bear, neighbors had been reporting sightings of the bear cubs, but as they started to decrease, officials became worried and set up traps to try and capture them, according to a May 22 post by the agency.
The cubs were found in one of the traps at about 7:45 p.m. May 22, officials said.
'As you can see, they are enjoying each other's company,' officials said in a post with a photo of the cubs in a large cage.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources agreed to take custody of the cubs and relocate them to a wildlife preserve, officials said.
'Although we would have loved for these cubs to be Bent Tree bears, this is now the best option for them,' officials wrote in the post. 'We will never forget about these special cubs.'
Bent Tree Safety & Emergency Management is based out of Jasper, about a 60-mile drive north from Atlanta.
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