MOULTONBOROUGH — Doughnuts soaked in half and half attracted two orphaned bear cubs into a safe trap overnight Wednesday.
New Hampshire Fish and Game Officer Chris Rines set out a trap after receiving a call that the cubs were up a tree on Bean Road in Moultonborough, about a mile from where their mother was struck and killed by a car on Route 25 on May 16. Since her death, Fish and Game officers had been on the lookout for the 5-month-old cubs, who each weigh about eight to 10 pounds.
“They are doing great,” said Fish & Game Bear Project leader and wildlife biologist Andrew Timmins. He said Officer Chris Rines set out the trap after 7 p.m. on Wednesday and found the bears in the trap at about 5 a.m. on Thursday.
They are in the care of bear rehabilitation expert Ben Kilham, an independent wildlife biologist and professional gunsmith, of Lyme. Kilham is a nationally recognized bear expert and the author of “Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild.”
“They are in excellent condition,” said Kilham Thursday afternoon. “They are a little scared,” he said, adding that the cubs are being held in a separate enclosure until they get used to their surroundings.
Kilham said they will be fed lamb's milk, baby cereal, dog food and wild vegetation for a couple of weeks, then released to his facility's eight-acre enclosed forest to be with the other bears. And they will have plenty of company. Kilham said they are the 11th and 12th bear cubs he's accepted this spring.
“It's been an extraordinary year for cubs — we now have 12 cubs,” he said. Recently, he received three cubs whose mother was shot by a farmer in Plymouth as she ventured near a chicken coop. In several other cases, the mother — or sow — was struck and killed by a vehicle, as in this Moultonborough case.
“People should not shoot bears, especially if they have cubs,” said Kilham, adding that New HampshireWildlife Services provides free electric fencing to protect property from bear intrusion.
Rehabilitation costs can run $1,500 a year per cub. “A mother bear does it a lot cheaper.”
The cubs will spend a year in the enclosed forest, socializing with the other bears before being turned back to the wild in northern New Hampshire.
“While they are inside, they will get to know each other. Bears have the ability to form social groups and interact. They will all get along,” he said.
Timmins concurred that it has been a banner year for the bear cub population. A plentiful food supply last fall translated into healthy females giving birth to cubs.
In a normal year, Fish and Game gets about five or six abandoned or orphaned cubs.
The cub numbers may be on the rise again, as four additional cubs in Greenville are on the loose after being orphaned when cars killed two sows recently.
Anyone wishing to send donations to cover the cost of food for the cubs can write to Kilham at P.O. Box 37, Lyme, NH 03768. For more information on black bear behavior, go to his web site at benkilham.com
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