Banff cubs found in bathroom doing 'really well' in Ontario as they prep for Alberta return

Three baby bears found trapped in a Banff washroom are packing on the pounds and adjusting well intheir temporary Ontario home, says one of the peopleoverseeing their rehabilitation.

The cubs have roughly tripled in weight from sixto 18 kilograms since their April arrival at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, north of Toronto.

Sara Locke, who's worked with the bears from the beginning, says they spend theirdays eating fruit, digging for peanuts and playing in their enclosure pool.

"They're just loving swimming," Locke said. "I can hardlykeep up with dry straw in their enclosure, because they just run around soaking all the time.

"They're doing really well."

Watch the Banff cubs snack on plants at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Ontario

7 years ago

Duration 0:55

The cubs are gaining weight nicely and have roughly tripled in weight over the last three months.

The cubs were roughly three months old when were discovered by a motorist who stopped to use a publicbathroom while travelling along the Trans-Canada Highway on April 1.

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Parks Canada made the decision to send them to a rehabilitation centre in Ontario, with the hopes of eventually re-introducing them to Banff National Park.

Minimizing bear-human contact

Locke said her organization communicates closely with Parks Canada about the bears' status. Parks Canada has even been sending plants that are native to Alberta so the bears can eat them.

"The hope is that the plants from [Banff] that are being flown in, they'll recognize them when they get back to [Banff] as that being their food source," Locke said.

Because the plan is to reintroduce the bears to Banff National Park next spring, staff and volunteers have taken extra care to minimize their interactions with the cubs so that they do not become habituated to human contact.

"When we were handling them when they were younger, we would wear a poncho that smelled like one of our other bears,"Lockesaid.

Staff and volunteers see the bearsjust twice a day to give them food and clean their enclosure, and they'realways careful to wear a mask when around the cubs, Locke said.

Upsizing their living quarters

The three bears will move to a new outdoor enclosure by the end of the month, which is larger than their current living space and has trees for the cubs to climb.

The plan is for them to spend the winter there in hibernation, before they're driven back to Banff.

The bears had to be temporarily transported out of provincebecause Alberta effectively outlawed the rehabilitation of bears about six years ago, citing concerns over public safety and how the animals fare in the wild once they've become habituated to humans.

Albertawildlife refuges are forbidden from taking bears and releasing them back into the wild without special permission from the provincial government.

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Parks Canada said it chose the Aspen Valley rehabilitation centre because that organizationhas sufficient space, expertiseand a track record of success with this sort of situation.

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