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‘Cornfield Cub’ is Expected to Return to Wild this Year

Writer's picture: Patrick DurkinPatrick Durkin

   A newborn bear cub that survived the destruction of its cornfield den site Jan. 2 in northwestern Wisconsin is growing and gaining weight after beating pneumonia, which killed its two female litter mates.


   The three small cubs were initially taken in by a farmer who saw the sow flee its nest-like den as he harvested the cornfield near the Dunn County and Barron County line. After the farmer moved off, he saw the sow return to the exposed cubs, but then leave. The temperatures ranged from 14 to 22 degrees that day, so he picked them up, brought them home and cared for them overnight. The next day, he contacted the Department of Natural Resources and the Wildlife Instincts rehabilitation center near Rhinelander to arrange their transfer.


   The cubs had pneumonia by the time rehabilitators took control, and the females soon died. The male cub, however, responded to antibiotics and incubation, and quit coughing up blood. Although the cub isn’t “out of the woods,” it’s doing much better than it was four weeks ago, said Mark Naniot, director/owner of Wildlife Instincts.


   The cubs were born in late December inside the uncut cornfield, where the sow set up her winter den above ground within the field’s dense cornstalks. The cornfield wasn’t cut last fall because heavy rains made the ground too soft and the corn too wet to harvest.

This 4-week-old bear cub survived losing its den Jan. 2 in northwestern Wisconsin. It then survived pneumonia, but is now eating well and growing fast .

— Photo courtesy of Mark Naniot, Wild Instincts

 

   Naniot said newborn cubs don’t open their eyes during their first four to five weeks, and that’s now occurring. Wildlife Instincts is the only wildlife-rehabilitation facility in Wisconsin that can care for growing bear cubs. Assuming the cub’s health keeps improving, Naniot hopes to return it to the wild as soon as possible.


   The first option is to place it in a “foster den” this winter with a sow already nursing and tending her own litter, Naniot said. He’s contacting DNR biologists and university researchers to learn if they’re monitoring active dens. A sow already nursing cubs doesn’t seem to notice if her litter suddenly increases by one or two hungry mouths. If Naniot finds a suitable den with a small litter, caretakers can slide the cub in among the other cubs and let the sow take it from there.


   “We hope to get him into a foster den because then he’ll be raised wild, which would be the best option,” Naniot said. “If we can’t do that, we’re prepared to do the whole process here, but it takes months. It isn’t easy and it costs a lot.”


   Besides being cheaper and less work, foster care with a sow will teach the cub to fend for itself and avoid humans. If that option isn’t available, the cub will require bottle feeding with a special formula through winter until it’s weaned. Naniot said a winter’s worth of formula costs about $400.


   As the cub grows, the staff at Wild Instincts will create smoothies by mixing grapes, bananas and other fruits into the formula. Later, as its teeth develop, they’ll add ground-up dog food and other foods to the smoothy.

Bear cubs in northern Wisconsin, like these three photographed with their mother near Athelstane, weigh about 30 pounds by mid-July.   — Photo courtesy of Al Hofacker


   By mid-April, when cubs weigh about 5 to 6 pounds, Wild Instincts hopes to have them eating solid foods from a dish, which further ensures they won’t imprint on humans. That means preparing a food bowl, making loud sounds to scare cubs from the feeding room, setting the bowls in place, and then fleeing the room before they return to eat.


   Naniot said bears are omnivorous, so they’ll eat just about anything that’s nourishing, whether it’s bugs, grubs, mice, acorns, berries, grasses, leaves and other vegetation. Wild Instincts has a 40-by-115-foot enclosure with a pond and den area for raising cubs, so they learn to move around and “forage” on their own.


   The facility seldom handles less than nine or 10 cubs annually, but the most cubs raised in one year at Wild Instincts was 20. By handling several cubs, Naniot and his team better ensure the cubs bond with each other instead of their human caretakers.


   Meanwhile, wild sows leave their dens in spring as they wean their cubs, sometimes creating the next opportunity for foster care. If a sow is wearing a GPS-equipped collar, researchers can monitor her location, hoping she’ll visit an accessible site. They can then rush in and run off the sow as she huffs and puffs to send the cubs scrambling up the nearest tree.


   Once the cubs are aloft and the sow is out of sight, the caretakers bring in their cub, put it on the tree, and watch it climb up to join the sow’s cubs. After the humans back out, the sow returns and summons the cubs to come down. Bears can’t count, and sows don’t take names or call the roll, and so the cub leaves with its new family.


   Once cubs reach about 30 pounds in mid-July, they’re big enough to thwart predation by coyotes and bobcats, and fast enough to avoid wolves by climbing trees. As summer ends and fall arrives, Wild Instincts looks for sites to release cubs still in its care. By autumn, cubs raised in captivity weigh 80 to 125 pounds, and can live and den independently.

Lone cubs without a mother can be placed inside the den of another sow that's nursing and tending her own cubs. — Photo courtesy of Karl Malcolm


  Naniot said female cubs typically den within a few miles of the release site, while some males they’ve monitored traveled 60 and even 120 miles before settling in.


   “Female cubs more or less feel welcome in a new area,” Naniot said. “But if there’s a male living nearby and the release site is part of its territory, he won’t want another bear living there and competing for breeding rights. Young males need a place where they won’t be in competition with another male. Some of them go a long ways to find a new home.”


   The longer a cub stays in Wild Instinct’s care, the bigger its bill for room and board. Even if the facility supplements their diets with natural forbs, grasses, nuts and berries, it will cost about $5,000 per cub to care for them through winter, spring and summer before their autumn release.


   And yes, Wild Instincts occasionally takes in adult bears, but not because they can’t find work or hold a job. Bears of all ages get hit by cars and trucks, while others get crippled or incapacitated by quills that a porcupine slaps into their face or paw.


    As such injuries attest, life in the forest isn’t all ferns and trilliums.

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