On the night of August 8, a small female bear cub was hit by a car in Alleghany County, Virginia. The bear was taken to a permitted wildlife rehabilitator in the area where she was stabilized; VDGIF Black Bear Project Leader Jaime Sajecki transported the cub to the Wildlife Center the following day.
Dr. Ernesto examined the cub upon admission. Due to the bear's small size, Dr. Ernesto was able to manually capture and restrain the bear before anesthetizing the cub for a physical examination. The cub was dehydrated and Dr. Ernesto was able to hear mild crackles in the bear's lungs, indicating some mild internal trauma which was confirmed on radiographs. Jaime noted that the cub was smaller than what she would expect to see at this time of year; it's possible that this cub was separated from her mother for a period of time before her injury. The cub weighed 8.7 kg.
Blood was drawn for analysis and the bear received subcutaneous fluids for the dehydration. If the blood work is within normal limits, the cub will spend the next day inside the Center's hospital for additional fluids and monitoring before being moved to yard #2 with the seven other bear cubs in the Black Bear Complex.