black bear cub in tree

Black Bear Cub Rescued From Tree Off Busy Downtown Street

As citizen footage shows, this lost little black bear cub was rescued by Tennessee officers after scaling a downtown tree.

Had they not acted fast, the cub could’ve been hit by a car in busy urban Elizabethtown, TN. No word on how the little one got here, but it made for a busy Easter weekend for both police and wildlife officials.

The rescue occurred on Easter Sunday, Apr. 9, as officers surrounded the tree at the intersection of Broad Street downtown, local News Channel 11 reports. With a net, snare, and ample patience, officials were able to get the black bear cub down safely. Now, he’ll begin a journey of rehabilitation and release. Take a look:

“Police Chief Jason Shaw said the cub is now in the care of a nearby rescue,” News Channel 11 cites. This is great news, as black bear cubs are unable to survive on their own in the wild – let alone a busy downtown.

Elizabethtown is an Appalachian city in the far northeastern corner of Tennessee. It’s over a two-hour drive from our state’s best-known bear rescue, Appalachian Bear Rescue, however. ABR resides near Townsend, TN, which is south of Gatlinburg and closer to the southeast corner of the state (and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park region). Regardless, Outsider wishes the best to this little black bear cub on his road to recovery.

Black Bear Cubs Need Their Mother to Survive

As ABR will tell you, black bear cubs are born tiny, hairless and absolutely helpless. These tiny ones weigh less than half a pound at birth. A mother black bear, or sow, will give birth to a litter of two to three cubs on average. A single cub is also common, however.

This happens during cub season, where babies are born from mid-January into early February. This is the middle of the Eastern black bear‘s (Ursus americanus americanus) winter denning period. The rest of a mother’s time in the den is then dedicated to feeding, cleaning, and rearing her cubs.

Before cubs are ready to emerge in late Feb. or March, each will need to rapidly put on weight. They should (ideally) weigh around 5 pounds when they first surface into the wide world. Mom is crucial during this entire time period. Without her, small cubs starve.

With mom, black bear cub growth becomes rapid outside their den. Black bears grow quickly in general, but their biggest spurt comes in this first year of life. During this time, mom teaches the cubs what to eat, where, and when as they grow from 5 to a good 80 pounds by their first birthday.

Black bear cubs remain dependent on mom for another 6 to 8 months, too. Even a 1-year-old bear cub, or yearling, can starve without their mother around. And as human areas continue to intertwine with bear country, the work of rescues like Appalachian Bear Rescue remains crucial to our bear population.