ABR visits Eagleton Elementary School

Friday the thirteenth was a lucky day for students at Eagleton Elementary School in Maryville, TN.  Three volunteers from ABR visited the school and presented bear education programs to each grade level.  The school “adopted” an ABR bear cub, which they decided to name Raven, for their school mascot.  The volunteers presented a framed photo and an “adoption certificate” that will be on display in the office.  For the next couple of weeks, there will be a school-wide drive to collect coins to help feed the bear cub.  These photos were taken during the visit.

Joey Holt talking to primary students

 

Joey also talked to upper grade students

 

Students react to bear scat

 

A win-win website for ABR supporters!

Common Kindness (www.commonkindness.com) is a website that you can visit and support ABR while saving money yourself.  It works like this:

Become a Member of CommonKindness

1. Sign in to select your charities (of course you will select Appalachian Bear Rescue)
2. Clip coupons to save money on many different items, including groceries
3. Companies pay an advertising fee to CommonKindness
4. CommonKindness shares 60% of its profits or 20% of revenue, whichever is greater, with the charities you select – at no cost to you!

This is how you can make a difference for ABR and our bear cubs.  Thank you!

 

Arkansas cubs go home!

On Tuesday, November 10th an Arkansas wildlife officer picked up the 3 AR cubs.  He took them to an area in Arkansas that has abundant bear food and plenty of potential den sites.  The male cub weighed 72 pounds, one female weighed 62 pounds, and the other female weighed 85 pounds.  These are good weights for successful hibernation.  All 3 cubs were displaying typical wild bear behavior, which pleased the Arkansas officer.  We at ABR wish these cubs well as they return to their Arkansas habitat .

 

Unicoi County Cub at ABR

In the most recent cub update post, we told about a cub that was hit by a car in Unicoi Count, TN.  That incident was well documented by local news media.  This article has a photo of the K-9 officer with the Unicoi County Sheriff’s Department with the young bear.  Because the bear had a head injury, he couldn’t be taken to UT, as stated in the article, but was brought directly to ABR for rest and recovery.  He is expected to make a full recovery and should be ready for release by the end of the year.

 

Pistol Creek Catch of the Day Raises $500.00 For ABR

We’ve talked before about Pistol Creek Catch of the Day performing to raise money for ABR.  Tonight, the group of four performed at Sister Cats @ The Market in Maryville.  The donations and new memberships raised $500.00 to help feed the 15 cubs at ABR right now.   Outstanding results with an evening of music and great food.

 

 

Pistol Creek can next be heard at Wild Wings Cafe on Tuesday November 17.

 

 

Kids Help ABR

ABR education volunteers have been visiting area schools, giving classes an opportunity to “Adopt a Cub” and learn about bears.   Those classes that participated received a photo of one of the ABR cubs and an adoption certificate.  The children were able to name their cub. 

They helped ABR by collecting acorns and hickory nuts and /or coins to help feed the cubs currently housed at the facility.  Here are photos taken at some of the schools.

Lanier Elementary First Graders Learn About Bears

ABR volunteers talk to Kindergarteners at Fort Craig Elementary

First Graders at Mary Blount Elementary look at bear items

Lots of acorns collected for bear cubs!

ABR thanks all of the schools that have participated in the Adopt-a-Cub program!  Special thanks go to the teachers for their help in making this such a success.

 

2 Cubs Leave, 2 Cubs Arrive

Just last week, the 2 Louisiana cubs that have been at Appalachian Bear Rescue since March went back home.  Louisiana wildlife officers performed a final workup and fitted them with ear transponders  before releasing them.   A few days later, the LA officers admitted another orphaned and underweight cub, a 25-pound female  that will spend the winter at ABR.

Meanwhile, a yearling was struck by car in Unicoi County, TN.  He was transported to ABR.  Because he has a head injury as a result of the accident, he needs R&R time.  ABR will provide that necessary rest,  and since he is seriously underweight, we will also see that he packs on the pounds before he is released.

As you can tell, our cub count remains the same.  We still have 14 cubs.  All of them are eating voraciously, gobbling down the acorns, hickory nuts, and apples that schools and individuals have collected for them.

 

Louisiana Cub Coming to ABR

This article relates the story of a very small orphaned cub, found in Louisiana, that is soon to be on its way to ABR.  If all goes according to plan, the two current LA cubs will be picked up and taken home to LA for release in a few days, and the little guy in the article will be brought in, where he will spend the winter.

 

Just Plain Stupid

I came across an article about a lawsuit filed by a man who thinks they should have a constitutional right to shoot bears who get into backyard bird feeders.   The bear didn’t menace the man and he was prosecuted for illegal hunting when he shot and wounded the bear.

What I want to know is why the man didn’t just bring in his bird feeder.

 

Now we have 14!

In late September, a black bear sow was killed in a collision with a vehicle just inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, at the “Townsend Y.”  She had 3 cubs, all of which were captured by a diligent wildlife officer, who spent three days and nights in the area in order to rescue all of them and bring them to ABR.  The cubs were underweight, and because of the trauma involved in losing their mother and then being captured, they were housed in a small cage to recover and gain weight before joining the other cubs in the large (1/2 acre) enclosure.  Bear cubs climb with ease, as shown here:

The photo below shows 2 of the cubs in better light.  The third and smallest one was still up at the top of the cage.

Last week, we received one more cub.  This one had been wounded by the hunter who shot its mother.  It was taken to the University of Tennessee Vet School for medical treatment.