‘Baby Bear' Learns How to Be Wild From Humans in Fur

New York Times

23-05-2025

The lonely 2-month-old black bear cub who was weak, dehydrated and underweight when he arrived at a wildlife center in Southern California last month may have had bigger problems than to question why his new caretakers looked rather gaunt.
Apparently, he has yet to discover that they aren't bears at all, but people donning pelts and furs to disguise their humanness.
That's because the make-believe bears are staff members with the Ramona Wildlife Center at the San Diego Humane Society, which has been experimenting with the practice of dressing up to welcome bear cubs and other wildlife that has been abandoned or lost.
The hope is that the cub will not form an attachment to humans, losing its instinctual behaviors and becoming reliant on people for food, the center said.
The ash-brown colored cub (the fur of American black bears comes in a wide array of colors) is still learning how to be a bear.
Baby Bear — his unofficial name among humans — arrived at the wildlife center in April after campers discovered him in Los Padres National Forest in Central California, as previously reported by The Washington Post.
He was alone and crying out, center staff said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife searched in vain for Baby Bear's mother.
Now, a large stuffed teddy, one of many that populate his room, plays that part.
'If he gets scared by something, he hears a loud noise, he'll run over and seek comfort from the teddy bear,' said Autumn Welch, the center's wildlife operations manager. 'He looks at that as his surrogate mom.'
Staff members are teaching him bear behaviors, like which grasses and flowers he can snack on, how to dig for insects and how to climb trees to reach safety.
Baby Bear probably sees his caretakers, who wear vintage genuine furs donated to the center, as something more like siblings or playmates, Ms. Welch said.
Even when sweating in the most voluminous mantles, the humans in bear costumes are considerably thinner than an adult black bear would be. (Black bears can stand as tall as seven feet and weigh in at up to 500 pounds.)
To the human eye, when the caretakers put on the furs and wear stiff Halloween masks bought from Amazon, the result is creepy.
'You kind of have to leave your ego at the door,' Ms. Welch said of their appearance.
The goal is to get Baby Bear healthy enough to reintroduce him to the wild.
For now, the cub's world is a cinder block-walled room, filled with hay from a local bear sanctuary to keep him exposed to the scent of his bear kind.
'We went there and gathered a whole bunch of hay and things that smelled like their bears and put it on the fur coat, put it in his environment, rub it on ourselves,' Ms. Welch said, 'so that he's smelling black bears instead of human scent.'
When Baby Bear gets too inquisitive with his caretakers, they make bear noises and try to distract him with moves like a mother bear, such as pushing food toward him.
'We have a few vocalizations that we can use to communicate with him as a mother would be doing,' Ms. Welch said. 'We do a little bit of acting like bears.'
As another option, they cover their faces with camouflage masks commonly used by hunters and the military.
Baby Bear will need to remain in their care for up to a year. The 16- to 17-month period that a cub typically spends with its mother in the wild is crucial to learning how to survive in the wild, said Spencer Peter, a biologist with the North American Bear Center in Minnesota.
It is also the most difficult for humans to replicate.
'When they do get orphaned or they do get separated,' Mr. Peter said, 'it can be really challenging for us as humans to make up for the lack of the mother bear — not that it's impossible.'
It requires a lot of time, resources and money, he said, and if rehabilitation fails, a bear released into the wild will want to return to humans and rely on them for food.
Baby Bear would not have survived in the wild alone, Ms. Welch said.
'He was so little when he got here,' Ms. Welch said. 'This is the youngest we've ever cared for here. He could fit in your two palms — just three pounds.'
He has been thriving — playing, climbing, exploring — in the center's care and now weighs more than 12 pounds.
'He's doing all the things on his own, and not looking for us, not relying on us,' Ms. Welch said. 'It's a good feeling to see that he is very well-adjusted.'