There wasn’t much left of Barnabee when someone found him in a shed in upstate New York last September, mostly skin, bones, parasites… and a very precious secret.
But Barnabee would have taken that secret to the grave had Chris Mattern not gotten involved. A bear specialist at the nearby Adirondack Wildlife Refuge and Rehab Center, Chris isn’t the kind of person who turns bears away.
He took it upon himself to nurse the sickly bear back to health.
Within just a few months, Barnabee was tipping the scales at more than 135 pounds, according to the Adirondack Almanack. The bear's mange began to clear up, along with the parasites.
And then Barnabee started to give up his secrets. Or, we should say, her secrets. It wasn’t until a fateful day in February that Chris realized Barnabee was actually female.
However, that wasn’t the only twist.
“I went in there to put some water in there, and I heard what sounded like a baby crying,” Chris told NBC 5 News.
Barnabee had given birth to a pair of healthy cubs.
“It’s amazing,” Chris told the news outlet. “You can’t really predict any of that, but it was definitely a unique thing, and something I’ve never seen in my experiences.”
There are so many reasons to admire bears, but none are as inspirational as the odds they can overcome to protect their babies.
When spring arrives, Barnabee will be released into the Adirondack Mountains — along with the cubs she fought so hard to bring into the world.
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