An orphaned bear cub’s decision to search for food at a Squamish hotel may have inadvertently saved its life.
The cub was spotted repeatedly wandering the grounds at the Executive Suites Hotel and Resort, where hotel staff took a liking to him. But when they realized that the cub seemed to be without its mother, they were concerned.
“We could tell he was really hungry because he was looking for food and he seemed really thin—maybe about 25 pounds,” Jared Sissons, the hotel’s general manager, told the CBC. “He was very shy and skittish—he would just bolt and run. He was in distress, I could tell.”
When the hotel workers learned that a mother bear had recently been killed on the Sea-to-Sky Highway and heard that conservation officers had been looking for an orphan, they put two and two together. Because they had grown so fond of the cub, they decided to take responsibility for its rehabilitation costs themselves, sponsoring its care at Critter Care Wildlife Society, a wildlife sanctuary that treats and releases sick and orphaned animals. The hotel staff will be paying for the cub’s food and expenses until it is released sometime next year—an investment that will cost them approximately $250 a month.
Their only wish, says Sissons, is that the bear will get to remain in its hometown: “We hope he’s going to be released back into Squamish, because he’s a Squamish bear.”
The cub has no name as yet, but the hotel will hold a naming contest starting next week, which will be open to the public.
