The San Diego Humane Society received a small bear cub that was rescued by some campers in the Los Padres National Forest. The cub was found alone and starving.
The baby bear is only two months old, and it is the youngest cub the humane society has ever had in its custody.
'The cub is thriving here. When he first arrived, he was only 3 lbs and was a little debilitated, probably from going multiple days without any kind of nutrition or hydration,' said Autumn Welch, the wildlife operations manager at the center. 'He's now quadrupled in size, he's over 12 lbs.'
Oddly though, some of the cub's care is provided by people wearing terrifying bear costumes.
I think I'd rather face down a real-life bear than Darth Bear there.
Fortunately, the cute-factor of the baby bear makes up for it.
The staff has their reasons for the weird costumes:
'They're really smart and very food motivated,' Welch said. 'As we continue to develop in the areas they live, they're always being pushed into areas where people may have some type of conflict with them.'
'Sometimes bears will get into trash or get into people's yards,' she added. 'The more we can keep this cub wild and keep him from recognizing humans as the providers of anything good, we're hoping every time we go in there, he's seeing us as other bears and being able to identify with us as bears instead of humans.'
Still creepy though!
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