A wildlife park in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is fundraising to save an orphaned black bear from being euthanized.
According to reports, the nearly one-year-old cub was found alone, wandering along a highway near Whycocomagh last spring.
The two men who found the male bear were unable to locate his mother, so they brought him into Two Rivers Wildlife Park in Cape Breton.
When the cub arrived at Two Rivers he weighed just seven pounds and was suffering from pneumonia, but he’s since been nursed back to health.
“We treated him appropriately and he made a great recovery,” one of the park’s staff members, Jarrett Lewis, told CTV News.
Now the cub is facing a whole new set of issues. Park staff said that the bear can’t return to the wild after being cared for by humans. The problem is, he’s outgrowing his current enclosure and he’s still too small to live with the park’s adult black bears.
That’s why the park is currently raising $40,000, which they plan to use to build the cub his very own shelter.
When the park first appealed for donations earlier this week, staff told reporters that they feared they’d be forced to put the bear down if they didn’t find the money to build a bigger enclosure. Luckily, they’ve already made lots of progress, and are well on their way to reaching their goal.
“The phones are going non-stop, emails coming in,” Lewis said. “[People] want us to do a Go Fund Me page. They’re doing e-transfers. They’re coming out to see the baby bear, which is the most important part.”
