Latest news with #LosPadresNationalForest
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Orphaned bear cub finds comfort in a teddy bear and costumed caregivers
Autumn Welch dons a fur coat, leather gloves and a bear mask for work these days, then enters an enclosure to feed and fawn over a 12-pound (5.4 kg) black bear cub who she hopes will consider her family. The orphaned cub was about two months old when he was found April 12 in Southern California's Los Padres National Forest — weak, underweight and alone. Since then, the baby bear has been cared for by Welch's team with the San Diego Humane Society in sessions that mimic familial behaviors. The hope is to eventually return the cub to the wild.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Orphaned bear cub finds comfort in a teddy bear and costumed caregivers
Autumn Welch dons a fur coat, leather gloves and a bear mask for work these days, then enters an enclosure to feed and fawn over a 12-pound (5.4 kg) black bear cub who she hopes will consider her family. The orphaned cub was about two months old when he was found April 12 in Southern California 's Los Padres National Forest — weak, underweight and alone. Since then, the baby bear has been cared for by Welch's team with the San Diego Humane Society in sessions that mimic familial behaviors. The hope is to eventually return the cub to the wild. The bear costume is meant to stop the rescued cub from bonding with humans. The fur coats are stored in bins with hay scented by black bears. The team went through a few masks before finding one that fit properly. 'Mama' is a giant stuffed teddy bear propped up in the corner of a pen at the humane society's 13-acre (5-hectare) Ramona Wildlife Center near San Diego. That's where the cub turns when he's spooked or just wants to snuggle up for a nap, said Welch, the wildlife operations manager. 'He's probably really missing his real mom,' she said. When the costumed caregivers enter, the cub treats them like siblings. He rambunctiously plays with them and happily accepts grass and fresh wildflowers to munch. A milestone was met recently when the youngster learned to dig through soil for worms and insects, 'which he caught on to pretty quick,' Welch said. Other food is placed in tree branches for him to find on his own. Team members took heart when they recently found the cub snoozing on a tree branch, a common behavior for bears in the wild. 'He's very thoughtful. He's constantly taking in his environment,' Welch said. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife tried to reunite the cub with his mother after campers found him. They returned the youngster to the wild overnight, but took him in when she didn't appear. The emaciated 3-pound (1.3-kg) baby bear was then transported to the Ramona wildlife center. The cub has quadrupled in size since then. Biologists hope they can return him to the wilderness next year, provided he can learn to find food, seek shelter and avoid people. The cub is the fourth to enter rehab care in California in the past five years. He could be paired with a buddy if another one turns up, because that would reduce the risk of them imprinting on humans. In Virginia, employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center last year acted like mother foxes to feed and care for an orphaned kit. Video shows a caregiver in a red fox mask and rubber gloves feeding the tiny animal from a syringe. Like the California cub and his teddy bear, the kit sat on a large stuffed animal fox that was supposed to look like her mother. The costumed-care technique is relatively new, Welch said, so there's no conclusive research on its effectiveness. But in Ramona, humane society employees wearing coyote masks successfully raised three orphaned pups who have since been released into the wild. And the humane society is amassing animal masks just in case. 'We haven't found a good skunk mask yet,' Welch said.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Orphaned bear cub finds comfort in a teddy bear and costumed caregivers
Autumn Welch dons a fur coat, leather gloves and a bear mask for work these days, then enters an enclosure to feed and fawn over a 12-pound (5.4 kg) black bear cub who she hopes will consider her family. The orphaned cub was about two months old when he was found April 12 in Southern California's Los Padres National Forest — weak, underweight and alone. Since then, the baby bear has been cared for by Welch's team with the San Diego Humane Society in sessions that mimic familial behaviors. The hope is to eventually return the cub to the wild. The bear costume is meant to stop the rescued cub from bonding with humans. The fur coats are stored in bins with hay scented by black bears. The team went through a few masks before finding one that fit properly. 'Mama' is a giant stuffed teddy bear propped up in the corner of a pen at the humane society's 13-acre (5-hectare) Ramona Wildlife Center near San Diego. That's where the cub turns when he's spooked or just wants to snuggle up for a nap, said Welch, the wildlife operations manager. 'He's probably really missing his real mom,' she said. When the costumed caregivers enter, the cub treats them like siblings. He rambunctiously plays with them and happily accepts grass and fresh wildflowers to munch. A milestone was met recently when the youngster learned to dig through soil for worms and insects, 'which he caught on to pretty quick,' Welch said. Other food is placed in tree branches for him to find on his own. Team members took heart when they recently found the cub snoozing on a tree branch, a common behavior for bears in the wild. 'He's very thoughtful. He's constantly taking in his environment,' Welch said. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife tried to reunite the cub with his mother after campers found him. They returned the youngster to the wild overnight, but took him in when she didn't appear. The emaciated 3-pound (1.3-kg) baby bear was then transported to the Ramona wildlife center. The cub has quadrupled in size since then. Biologists hope they can return him to the wilderness next year, provided he can learn to find food, seek shelter and avoid people. The cub is the fourth to enter rehab care in California in the past five years. He could be paired with a buddy if another one turns up, because that would reduce the risk of them imprinting on humans. In Virginia, employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center last year acted like mother foxes to feed and care for an orphaned kit. Video shows a caregiver in a red fox mask and rubber gloves feeding the tiny animal from a syringe. Like the California cub and his teddy bear, the kit sat on a large stuffed animal fox that was supposed to look like her mother. The costumed-care technique is relatively new, Welch said, so there's no conclusive research on its effectiveness. But in Ramona, humane society employees wearing coyote masks successfully raised three orphaned pups who have since been released into the wild. And the humane society is amassing animal masks just in case. 'We haven't found a good skunk mask yet,' Welch said.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ramona Wildlife Center Raises Orphaned Bear Cub With Love... And Some Costumed Theatrics
*INSERT VIDEO HERE WHEN READY* At the San Diego Humane Society's Ramona Wildlife Center, the team isn't just raising a black bear cub — they're doing it in bear suits. 'We do our best to look like bears, smell like bears, and sound like bears,' said Autumn Welch, Wildlife Operations Manager at the center. The cub, approximately two months old when he arrived, was found crying and alone by campers on a trail in Los Padres National Forest. Despite efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to reunite him with his mother, including an overnight watch and the use of trail cameras, no sign of her ever surfaced. (MORE: Tennessee Community Unites To Save Rare Fish) The cub, weighing just three pounds and 'a little thin, a little emaciated,' was transferred to the Ramona Wildlife Center for rehabilitation. It's unclear what happened to his mother, but 'he probably went several days without nutrition or even hydration for that matter,' said Welch. This case is rare. Only four bear cubs this young have come into care in California in the past five years. 'Usually when we get bear cubs, they're a little bit older,' Welch explained. The Ramona center is one of only four facilities in the state permitted to rehabilitate black bears, and the only one in San Diego County licensed to care for apex predators like bears, mountain lions, and bobcats. From the beginning, the cub needed constant attention and a carefully structured environment that mimicked maternal behaviors. That's where the bear suits came in. Drawing on best practices, the team cobbled together a costume using donated fur coats and realistic bear masks ordered off Amazon. 'We've gone through several bear masks,' Welch said with a laugh. 'In the beginning he was so little and really just trying to figure out what had happened, where he was, who we were, and so we really wanted him to see us as other bears.' (MORE: Frozen Bald Eagle Rescued, Released Back Into Wild) The team's commitment extended beyond wardrobe. They introduced a large stuffed teddy bear into the cub's enclosure, and he immediately bonded with it. 'She's almost like his mother,' Welch said. 'When he gets nervous or hears a loud noise… he goes to the big teddy bear.' These extra steps aren't just adorable, they're essential. 'When he was first with us and we wanted him to learn how to explore his environment, we would take a small stuffed animal and use it kind of like a little sibling and move it around and look in the dirt,' Welch explained. 'He'd come over out of curiosity, 'Oh, what are you looking at?'' And it's not just bears. '"We do the same even with our little skunks. We give them stuffed animal skunks. The raccoons get stuffed animal raccoons and it works really well,' Welch said. (MORE: How A Lucky Turtle Jumped To Freedom) The cub now sees the humans (in their fur-covered disguises) as his siblings or playmates. "He's fascinated with all the smells, the flowers, the insects, everything we can bring him that his mom would be showing him and teaching him how to do, and we're looking for these various milestones as he's growing," Welch said proudly, adding "He's up to about 12 pounds now, so he's quadrupled in size." Despite the lighthearted visuals of grown adults in costume alongside a bear cub, the work is serious and resource-intensive. 'It's all based on support and donations, so we really do appreciate being able to tell his story' Welch said. 'Without wildlife rehabilitation centers, most likely these babies would not survive.' When the time is right and the cub has developed all the necessary skills to live on his own, the plan is to return him to the wild. 'Our job is to slowly phase ourselves out, teach him that independence,' explains Welch. 'We want to be able to see them go back to the wild and thrive and be able to coexist peacefully with humans.' Until then, the masked caregivers of Ramona Wildlife Center will continue their unusual and heartwarming mission, one costume at a time. (MORE: Injured Manatee Rescued From Florida Keys Brush Fire) lead editor Jenn Jordan explores how weather and climate weave through our daily lives, shape our routines and leave lasting impacts on our communities.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
An abandoned cub was rescued from the woods. Now he's being raised by humans — dressed as bears
A 2-month-old black bear cub recently rescued from the woods is now being raised by a new, faux fuzzy foster family: humans dressed as bears at the San Diego Humane Society's Ramona Wildlife Center. To keep the cub from forming bonds with people that could jeopardize his return to the wild, staff members charged with his care are dressing up in bear costumes, including a mask, fur coat and leather gloves. 'He was extremely fragile when he arrived,' Autumn Welch, the center's wildlife operations manager, said in a statement. 'After going several days without nutrition, it was touch-and-go at first. But now, he's active, eating well and gaining weight steadily.' The cub requires four enrichment and feeding sessions every day, with overnight feedings needed in his early days at the center. The cub was found April 12 in the Los Padres National Forest — underweight, alone and weak, according to a news release from the wildlife center. Biologists tried to reunite the cub with his mother by returning him to the wild, but she didn't come back. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife transported the bear to the wildlife center two days after he was found. The cub will be in the care of the wildlife center for up to a year, and the hope is to return him to the wild. If there's another cub in California, the agency may try to pair them up to keep them from imprinting on people, according to the release. The bear is the fourth in the last five years to be rehabilitated in California. 'This is a very unusual case,' Welch said. 'We don't often see bears this young without their mother. It's an honor to care for him, but it's also a significant commitment." For more information on the wildlife center, visit Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
