Daily Mail: A five-month-old American black bear was rescued from a river in the Smoky Mountains after she struggled to survive for several days. The 14lb bear was picked up by river guide Danny Allen, of High Mountain Expeditions, on the side of the Nolichucky River near Erwin, Tennessee, on Thursday.
After the bear – which has been named Noli Bear, after the river she was rescued from – was seen four days in a row, she climbed into Allen’s raft when he pulled to the river’s edge.
Matt Moses, who owns USA Raft, provided pictures of the dramatic rescue to Daily Mail Online and has described how Noli Bear was saved. ‘We had seen this bear over the last four days, and there was no sight of a mama bear,’ Moses told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
‘She was obviously malnourished and appeared to be in distress,’ he added. ‘My guides kept coming back to me and saying they had no idea what to do. We didn’t want to see this bear die on the side of the river.’
Each day Noli Bear became more comfortable with human contact, Moses said adding that it’s the first time he’s heard of a bear getting into a raft. ‘It would walk toward us at first. Then it swam out toward one of our rafts. Thursday, a guy from another rafting company (Allen) pulled over and she got right in,’ he told the News Sentinel.
Noli Bear was taken by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) to the Appalachian Bear Rescue in Townsend, which has returned orphaned, injured or medically in-need bears to the wild since 1996.
Dana Dodd, board president of the Appalachian Bear Rescue, said Noli Bear is recovering, and is ‘up, walking and feeding’. ‘She likes grapes and applesauce. Those things are great for her because they’re filled with water,’ she added. Dodd said the bear was dehydrated and given fluids by the University of Tennessee Veterinary School after she was dropped off at the Appalachian Bear Rescue.
In about a week, after she is climbing, hearing and seeing well, Noli Bear might be put into an area that houses four other cubs. ‘She will have to stay in the acclimatization area until we can’t see any more of her neurological conditions, like dehydration and possibly heat stroke,’ she said.
When Noli Bear reaches 50lb, which will likely be between August and December, she will be released into the wild. The TWRA will decide where she will be taken, but it will probably be near where she was found. ‘They do that because most of the bears try and make it back to where they came from,’ Dodd told the News Sentinel, as most cubs stay with their mothers until they are 16 months old. Studies have shown that at six months – especially in warmer climates like the southeast, and if food like acorns are plentiful – these cubs would be viable,’ she added.
Dodd urged, however, that people should not approach animals in the wild. ‘If you see wildlife in trouble, you should immediately call TWRA. You should never intervene on your own. It’s dangerous for you and the animal,’ she said.
DCG
