Collateral Cubs | Wild Bear Rescue S3E02 | Go Wild

At Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter, the last spring snow is melting away. And their 44 orphaned cubs from last year have just emerged from hibernation as yearlings. Over the next month, they'll all need to be released, starting with these two coastal black bears, Tanskwana and her brother, Gwaitan, who arrived in late fall. They were pretty close-knit and very gentle with each other. But Gwaitan was pretty aggressive with the other bears. So the idea was, we let these two go out first. Take those two out. Yeah. Here we go. The male, Gwaitan, is first to get tranquilized. Hey! Now it's Tanskwana's turn. And I'll just poke her. Once the two siblings are out, they are weighed. Can you get the second box ready? Then loaded up for their return home to Haida Gwaii. They came from Haida Gwaii, so we're taking them back there to have them released. All right. Here we go. Angelica and Peter Langan selected these two yearlings for early release because the islands of Haida Gwaii have a more temperate climate, where spring is already in full bloom. Haida Gwaii greens up first, so there's enough food for them up there so they can go now. It's a long journey to the Haida Gwaii islands, starting with a five-hour drive to the coast, then an overnight ferry. Haida Gwaii, it's off the coast of British Columbia, and it's about a seven-hour ferry ride from Prince Rupert. And then we're going to take another ride with a barge along the coast, and we're releasing them in a remote spot. Open the gate! And there's a bunch of kids out there. Shortly after Angelica and Peter left for Haida Gwaii, their lead caretaker, Kim Grouse, is called out on a cub rescue in the nearby town of Smithers with local COs, conservation officers. This morning, we got a call from the COs that we had a bear in town that was giving problems. We had a tag bear getting into garbage and wolfing at people, so we went in there, and with the binoculars, we were able to have a good look at this bear and could make out the number on the ear tag. And it's a sow that we had moved to a location referred to as the Susquehanna Valley, which is quite a distance from here. Unfortunately, she had her one chance with the relocation. We subsequently had to put her down this morning. We're attempting now to capture the two cubs, and they can go to the wildlife shelter. The sows' two cubs are up a large spruce tree, and when they come down, Kim is hoping to capture them. We set up two traps backed away from the scene. But the cubs are not moving. We've been waiting here now for four hours already. It's going to be a long day. There's the cubs. Yeah. I can't see any movement. Yeah. There's not any progress, so we're just going to leave now. OK. Thanks, Kevin. The trap will be left under the spruce tree overnight. We're going to come back and check upon them. We'll see. Fingers crossed. Good? Yeah. All right. By morning, Angelica and Peter have arrived at Haida Gwaii with a few minutes to feed the yearlings before their next boat trip. I'm going to cut a bottle open so that you can pour it, because with him, he's so aggressive. Gwaiitan, the male, can get snappy. He's hungry. So while Peter mans the food hatch, Angelica tries to keep Gwaiitan distracted. He's right here with me. Huh? He's here with me. Watch out, he's coming. His nose is right there. Come here. Yeah, I know. He's right here with me. Coming back. He's going, oh, yummy. Also on the boat trip with Angelica and Peter are the locals who rescued Gwaiitan and Tanskwana the previous fall. The band council in Haida Gwaii has been involved in naming and capturing these bears, and they will be also involved in the release. She's getting pissy. The boat journey will take the bears to a remote inlet on the far side of Haida Gwaii. The boat release is kind of exciting, because it's something different, and it brings them in a really good remote location, lots of space to roam far away from people. But timing is going to be critical. We've got to push it through these narrows. Or the boat could get hung up. We had a race against the tide to make sure that we could get there and back without getting stranded. Back in Smithers. So if he's in there, we're going to bring it out, put it in the kennel we have in the back. Kim Grouse and fellow volunteer Sally Jacobs have come back to check the traps under the spruce tree. If they're both in, that would be ideal, but I'm guessing only one. Follow me. I'm going to have a look here. So this morning, we got a call from the CO that neighbors figured one of the cubs was in the trap, because, like you can hear now, the calls of distress. It's going to be OK. Yeah. We need you. Sibling. In northern British Columbia, on the outskirts of Smithers, Kim and Sally rescue an orphaned cub and prepare to transfer it to a kennel. OK, yeah, that's good. We just moved it over into a kennel to bring it home. Probably exhausted. Now, Kim and Sally must reset the trap under the spruce tree for the second cub. Hopefully, later on today, we capture it for her sibling. You pull that forward, and then you let go. OK. When we were dealing with that trap, all of a sudden, I heard a cub screaming from the other side of the park. So I started walking. I was like, that's weird. Did the sibling move away? Kim is drawn towards the base of a large cottonwood tree. I heard the screaming. Like, oh, that's number two. Conservation officers Kevin Nixon and Flint Nibbs are trying to relocate another mother bear and cubs. You got tiny cubs, eh? Finding a second bear family so close to the other one is no coincidence. I just heard from one of the neighbors here that they've been dumping apples here over the summer and fall. And that kind of explains why there's two moms with cubs in such a close distance from each other. These bears right now are slated for relocation, so they haven't done anything wrong. They're just in an area that has brought them into conflict with people. The conservation officers have just tranquilized the mother bear, so they back away and hope she'll climb down. Meanwhile, in Haida Gwaii, the release team approaches the inlet chosen by locals to free two yearlings, Gwaiitan and his sibling, Tanskwana. What do you think? Yeah. What do you think? That's pretty awesome, huh? The release location was gorgeous. It was just anything that you can hope for and some. He said that they scouted it and there's not much adult bears here, so they think that they have a better chance. Yeah, I think this is a good spot. I think time-wise, though, we're pretty limited for how long we want to stay here. We should get it off of the tides falling. To avoid getting trapped by tides on this far side of the island, the team needs to move quickly. We still need to move it, but we just move them right to the bottom. But Angelika has bigger concerns about releasing these two jumpy bears. The key is going to be to not have them come back, but going out forward. When you have bears in boxes for a long period of time, that's enough. And you have a big open space in front of them. You always have to be prepared that they are considering that threatening and want to go up and over the boxes into the boat. Guaitan and Tanskwana's transport boxes are set up side by side to create a rear barrier. With Peter and Angelika on guard duty above. So Peter and I wanted to make sure that we were there to block them if that's what they were wanting to do. OK? Ready? OK? On a remote inlet in the Haida Gwaii Islands, Angelika and Peter Langan are about to release two edgy bear siblings onto the beach, hoping they'll run forward to freedom rather than back into the boat. We try to always open the boxes simultaneously so that the siblings get a chance to stay together. OK? Ready? Guaitan zoomed out right away. Tanskwana came out and was sniffing around, trying to figure out where the brother had disappeared to. Let's go. And then took off. So they were a little bit separated. They most likely will tree over there. They're heading right for the trees. I think in overall, it was a really wonderful release. Almost a holiday. I'm quite confident that they found each other again once we left. Just outside Smithers Townsite, conservation officers Kevin Nixon and Flint Nibbs struggled to move a tranquilized mother bear into a bear barrel for relocation. It was quite a challenge for the COs to get the bear to the bear barrel they had on the other side of the creek. She was a good size. So yeah, you don't want her to wake up all of a sudden. To help with the pulling, Sally and Kim run a winch line from an ATV. And I'll hold her head up across here. At the moment, the mom felt the cold water. It triggered her, and she started to wake up. By the time she's lifted in the bear barrel, mama bear is almost fully awake. Her head came up, and Kevin was in the back of the bear barrel. So I blocked her head and shoulders with my body so Kevin could go back out of the barrel. Oh, that was close. Yeah, we were really relieved when she was in the trap. Next step is to try and capture the mother bear's cubs so they can be relocated with her. You ready? One of the cubs came down really fast, and Flint grabbed it from the tree and gave it to me to hold it. So I tried to keep it calm until Kevin picked up the kennel to put it in. Adrenaline is all the way up there. But when you hold an animal like that, they're really sensitive, and it helps if you calm down yourself. While Kim soothes the cub, Kevin gives Flint the kennel. They place the captured cub within earshot of his two siblings. We're going to leave that one under the tree. We're going to set up some traps. So hopefully we have success, and we can capture those two, and they can be relocated with mom. They'll leave the trap there overnight and hope the cubs' calls attract the siblings. Early morning on the outskirts of Smithers, British Columbia, under a cottonwood tree where Kim and conservation officers captured a mother bear and one of her three cubs. Partial success. The second cub was in the trap, but one of the cubs was still up in the tree. The third cub appears to be stuck. It hadn't moved at all from where it was the day before. Then we came up with the solution to ask the local arborist to climb the big cottonwood tree. Hey, it's not moving. And then we found out that the third cub didn't make it. It got himself wedged between two branches and suffocated there. That was really sad. That was really hard to deal with. Conservation officer Flint Nibbs takes the two surviving cubs with their mother to be relocated at a remote wilderness site. But there's still one other cub to capture, an orphan that was hiding up in the nearby spruce tree two days earlier when its sibling was caught. We heard the bawling of the other cub, which was in the original spruce tree that we started off two days ago on. So the team heads back to the spruce for the last remaining cub. So we have a local arborist climbing the tree right now, trying to grab the cub or chase it down so we can grab it down here. Is it on its way down? Yeah. Yeah, I see it. Yeah. He's working his way down there, guys. Be ready to grab. And then all of a sudden, we see the cub coming down. Ellie, it comes your way. Grab a leg. OK. I see it, yeah. Just as soon as it got too close for his comfort. It's going up again. Don't let it go by you this time. It's going up the other side there. It went up on the other side of the arborist. Going up. At that moment, we were like, oh, no. You know, this is going to be a game of cat and mouse. It's been too easy, I guess. I'm going to come up as well. So Kevin, he went up two in the tree, so they went from each side. This one is alive for sure. They're going to put the catch pole on now. And he was able to put the catch pole around the cub. It is pretty open here. You can probably hand it to me from there, Kevin. Yeah. It's OK. It was feisty. People always want to cuddle bear cubs, and I'm like, no, you don't. He was fighting for his life, and that's good, because it's been two and a half days now since he had his last meal. I get you're hungry, but you don't have to eat. And still so much fight in him, that was a good sign. You're getting a hug. That's amazing. You guys are my new heroes. They're my heroes, absolutely. They went above and beyond to get these cubs into safety. Now starting to calm, the cub is ready to head back to Northern Lights shelter and reunite with its sibling. We've got a few scratches and abrasions, and I think I've got some holes in the waders from where it bit me a few times, but it's all good. Both the cubs are going to be paired up together now at the shelter, so yeah, it's a happy ending. It feels really good that at least we can help the cubs, and they have a second chance.