WATCH: The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre, which is currently looking after nine bears, requires $735,000.00 a year to look after them and other non-aquatic animals it cares for every year.
The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre’s (NIWRC) most recent patient is a tiny bear cub rescued from a beach near Tofino.
Whale watching guide John Forde of the Tofino Whale Centre received a report of a dead bear on a beach in Ross Pass on Saturday, and when he went to investigate, he found a dead female black bear with its cub still cuddling it.
He picked up the bear and it is now being cared for at the NIWRC in Errington.
It is the first bear cub this spring but there’s no telling how many more orphan cubs will come in.
They still have eight cubs from last year at the centre, getting ready for release by this fall.
It’s a costly venture, caring for bears and other non-aquatic animals here. Last year the budget was $735,000.00
“The bears are extremely expensive, $40 a day is what we’ve calculated and that pretty much means it’s paying for the staff that looks after them, the very, very expensive buildings that sometimes have to be engineered to make sure that they are safe for the public that have come here to the centre and the veterinary care and the feed, so it’s quite an endeavour for us,” said Sylvia Campbell.
“We are a non-profit organization and we rely on donations, admissions coming into the centre, we have our adoptions, our bear share programs,” added Tawny Molland.
They don’t know how the cub’s mother died but in many cases, the cubs that arrive at the centre are orphaned because their mother had to be put down after getting into people’s garbage or fruit trees, a human behaviour they try to educate about at the centre.
For more information about how you can donate, such as purchasing a bear share or adopting a bear click here.
Dean Stoltz
