A family of bears had been living under someone's deck in Reno, NV, since the beginning of this year. In order to keep an eye on them, the Nevada Department of Wildlife tagged the mom to better track her movements.
About a month later, the staff at the Department of Wildlife noticed the tracker was no longer moving, and when they went to investigate, they found the mother had passed away.
Sadly, the four bear cubs were left on their own. There were reported sightings of the bear cubs climbing around on trees by themselves, and this concerned locals enough to call in Animal Ark.
Animal Ark is an animal sanctuary based in Reno. The sanctuary's goal for the little cubs is to prepare them for their release into the wild instead of allowing them to grow up roaming amongst humans, eating garbage and not living the way bears should.
Scroll through below to see how Animal Ark is giving these adorable cubs a second chance at life, and let us know what you think in the comments!
[H/T: The Dodo, KOLO 8 News]
A local in Lake Tahoe, NV, was quite surprised to find a family of bears living under her porch. The rescuers she called found four orphaned bear cubs shivering all alone without their mother.
Animal Ark, an animal sanctuary based in Reno, brought all four of the cubs in and came up with a plan.
Instead of allowing the cubs to grow up near neighborhoods where they could get into all sorts of trouble, they would rehabilitate them and attempt to release them into the wild.
"These cubs probably would have turned into the 'juvenile delinquent' cubs that are taught by birth mothers to become garbage bears," Chris Healy, a Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesperson, told KOLO 8 News.
In order to create a natural environment for the cubs, the public is not allowed in for visits. Instead, they can keep up with their progress on the sanctuary's bear cam.
Sanctuary staff have noticed that the little cubs do miss their mama bear, but they're making great progress. As soon as the cubs are strong enough, Animal Ark intends to release them into the wild where they belong.
Although these bear cubs had a rough start in life, thanks to the help of Animal Ark's staff, the little bears have an opportunity to end up where they belong.
For more on the bear cubs' progress, you can visit Animal Ark's Facebook page.
Let us know what you think about these adorable cubs in the comments, and don't forget to SHARE with the baby animal lovers in your life!
