(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

'It shouldn't be here this time of year'

Orphaned bear cub rescued in Tobiano

Jan 31, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS – It’s been an emotional few days for a group of residents living in Tobiano.

“Somebody in the community posted a picture, probably not quite a week ago of what they thought was a bear print in the slush and just said, ‘Hey, heads up, community. I think there’s a bear in the area,’” Deena Beauchamp, a Tobiano resident, told CFJC Today Wednesday (Jan. 31).

A few days later, a bear cub was spotted in the neighbourhood.

“It was just an opportunity to start sharing and, ‘Hey, watch out, everyone. Keep your garbages in,’” she said. “People had spotted it here and there. So I was just kind of following that and making people that I could see bear aware.”

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Residents kept their distance, believing his mother could be nearby until the cub camped out in a backyard.

“We didn’t know the condition of the bear, it looked like it was really emaciated from what we could see, nobody was getting close to it,” said Beauchamp. “My heart broke for this bear. I want to cry, but my heart broke for this bear because it shouldn’t be here this time of year. There’s no other bears around here.”

The community rallied around the starving bear, even naming it Tobi. Multiple residents reached out to the Conservation Officer Service, looking for someone to come save this bear.

“We were like, ‘Come on, Tobi.’ But we wanted to be really quiet. We didn’t want to scare him or anything like that,” said Beauchamp.

Lydia Koot is a volunteer for Northern Lights Wildlife Society, she drove from Hope to trap the cub. Koot says she’s rescued 30 cubs in the last year.

“This year just has been a really difficult year with all the forest fires that dried out berry crops and stuff like that,” Koot explained. “Some moms might have abandoned their cubs for a better chance to survive themselves.”

She believes Tobi to be less than a year old. The animal weighs only 14 pounds.

“He is very tiny. His body size is very tiny. He must have lost his mum quite a long time ago,” said Koot, added that he should be between 50 to 80 pounds.

Tobi is now on his way to the Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers, where he will be regaining his strength before being released in June.

“I just feel so relieved. I feel grateful to the people who pulled together here,” said Beauchamp.