Increase in cub abandonment bewilders specialist

SEELEY LAKE - Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) Bear Specialist Jamie Jonkel said he is confused by the recent number of local mother bears abandoning their cubs either permanently or temporarily. This year in Seeley Lake,  he believes six cubs were abandoned. While the cause is unclear, most of the cubs were reunited and Jonkel sees no real long term effect on the bear population.

According to Jonkel, cub abandonment usually only happens on rare occasions when the area's wildlife is experiencing an overall food shortage throughout the year. Occasionally sows will also abandon their cubs if the mother is too young and inexperienced to be able to take care of them.

In this particular instance, Jonkel attributes the frequency of cub abandonment to a "peninsula" near Seeley Lake Campground. There a river mouth opens towards the middle of Seeley Lake. He believes many sows try to swim quickly across the river and in the process their cubs get left behind because they are afraid of traversing the water.

Jonkel believes this situation is additionally complicated by the presence of humans in the area.

"For some reason we had a lot of black bears [who had young] at the same time and they were all wanting to move through that peninsula area," he said. "It's hard enough moving through the landscape, let alone trying to maneuver [through cabins, dogs, people, cars and boats]. It didn't help having bears that feel comfortable moving through humanity too and no doubt they were three females that grew up in Seeley. [They] knew how to maneuver through cabin areas but they were dragging cubs behind them.

Fortunately at this point all but one of the cubs have been reunited with their mother this season. FWP caught one cub and intends to rehabilitate it.

Jonkel said they try to reunite a cub with its mother as much as possible because while rehabilitation options are available, often it can lead to adolescent bears becoming socialized with humans. This leads to increased interactions in adulthood.

"It looks nice on paper and it gives everyone a nice little warm, fuzzy feeling, but a lot of times when those cubs are released as young adults, gangly teenagers they're very acclimated to humans," Jonkel said. "They're very vulnerable to getting trapped and removed or getting shot so it's better if they can find their mother."

The rehabilitation process, which FWP conducts in Helena, includes having as minimal human contact as possible. Due to the necessary feeding it is impossible to have absolutely none but they still avoid having the bears become conditioned to the presence of people.

FWP will usually rehabilitate young bears only when they can see that the mother has been killed either because of a vehicle accident or being shot. Jonkel also said they will avoid rehabilitating a cub if it has been orphaned after July.

"If a cub is orphaned after July, when the berries come on, there's a pretty good chance he can survive on his own," he said. "If an orphan is a little tiny spring cub, [it's] very unlikely that he'll make it and that's when sometimes we'll assist. ... A rehabbed cub that is rehabbed as an orphan and is released into a winter den or released the following spring, they've got a head start. They're healthy, they've got a fat reserve and hopefully they learn enough from mom where they can become a natural bear."

In spite of the implied effects of abandonment, Jonkel does not believe these incidents will have long term effects on the local bear population. In previous years he has seen the population showcase resiliency.

"I don't think [there will be] any effect at all," he said. "When you have an extremely hard summer food failure, it does really knock all the young out that year. But then the following year, it's a better, wetter year, our black bears are at carrying capacity."

If someone sees a lone bear cub in the wild, Jonkel recommends taking photos of it while maintaining distance and avoiding contact as much as possible. The incident should then be reported to FWP by calling (406) 444-4952 or emailing fwpgen@mt.gov.

"Report it just so that we know what's going on so we can monitor it," Jonkel said. "If you have dogs and kids, give it lots of room because it could be a cub trying to get together with its mom who just got displaced because you drove in. So always give them the benefit of the doubt that the mother is nearby. It does not help to feed them ... that makes them more vulnerable later in life to management and hunting."