On the afternoon of Sunday, May 15, a small Black Bear cub was rescued from a tree in Salem, Virginia. The bear had been seen in the same tree for 36 hours with no sign of a sow. The cub was first taken to the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke for overnight care, then transported to the Wildlife Center of Virginia the following morning.
The Wildlife Center's veterinary team examined the female cub and found her to be thin and dehydrated, with a body condition score of 1.5/5. Skin scrapes and radiographs were within normal limits; blood was also drawn for analysis. Given the cub's underweight body condition, it's likely that she was separated from her mother days ago. The cub weighed 1.48 kg.
The rehabilitation staff placed the young bear in a Zinger crate and plan to bottle- or bowl-feed (depending on the cub's preference) three times a day. The Zinger crate was placed in the Center's Large Mammal enclosure, where two other cubs are currently housed. For now, the cub will live with cub #22-0685, since these two small bears are close in size.