Interesting Story from the Shores of Milly. at IDOfishing.com

Link to Pioneer Press story and photo of the unlucky cubby

The bear cub was hurt, the sow dangerous — a choice had to be made

Pioneer Press

Updated: 07/01/2009 10:40:31 PM CDT

Watch enough nature television and you know the No. 1 rule of a bear encounter is this: Never come between a sow and her cub.

But what if you found a cub injured by a car on a rural highway? Would you face down a wild-eyed mama bear in hopes you could get the little one to a rehabilitation center?

Sounds crazy, but that's what Minnesota Department of Natural Resource conservation officer Mike Lee did a few weeks ago while a crowd of motorists looked on.

You can definitely file this story under, "Don't try this at home."

Lee, 34, received a call June 16 about an injured bear cub on Minnesota 47 north of Isle, Minn.,a resort community on the south shore of Lake Mille Lacs.

A four-year DNR officer, Lee had an inkling he knew this bear family; he already had responded to several calls of a sow and her cubs tipping over bird feeders and "wreaking havoc" on the north side of Isle, he said.

When Lee reached the scene, passers-by were parked on the highway shoulder. The sow, which had two other cubs in tow, was trying to drag the injured cub off the road. The frantic mother would pick up the 50-pound cub in her mouth and haul it across the pavement. But she would drop it when a car drove by and scared her.

Lee and Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Deputy Mitch Lawler, who was also at the scene, knew they had multiple problems: an upset mama bear, an injured and bawling cub, and a traffic accident waiting to happen with an audience of gawkers.

"Everyone wanted to see what would happen," Lee said. "It was me and (Lawler) trying to keep everyone moving. People wanted something to be done, but no one wanted the cub shot. People were saying, 'Don't shoot the cub; don't shoot the bears.' ''

Lee is an experienced outdoorsman. He grew up in a hunting family in Sebeka, Minn., and has hunted bears in Minnesota with his father. Though it would seem a contradiction to those who don't hunt, Lee has a kind heart when it comes to animals.

"He cares a lot (about wildlife)," said Dr. Katie Baratto, a veterinarian at the nearby Garrison Animal Hospital, who knows Lee because of other injured animals he has brought to the clinic.

Lee decided he had to try to get the cub away from the sow. His best hope was to take it to the Garrison clinic, which has Minnesota's only licensed bear rehabilitator, Dr. Debra Eskedahl.

By now, the sow had moved the cub off the road and into an alder thicket in the ditch.

Lee could see the cub resting in a pool of swamp water. The sow alternated between keeping her other cubs at bay and keeping watch over her bellowing, injured cub.

Lee approached the cub, waving his arms and yelling. The sow charged the officer, her teeth bared and snapping, and Lee quickly retreated.

Again and again, Lee tried to get the cub before backing off as the full-grown sow, weighing an estimated 200 pounds, charged him, pounding her front feet and shoulders into the ground, shaking her wide head from side to side and snapping her jaws. "A definite sign of aggression," Lee said.

After each charge, Lee would run backward, stumbling over logs and debris. Often, in the thick foliage of the alder swamp, Lee couldn't see the sow until she was closing in. At one point, she stopped her charge just 15 feet away. He had never before faced an angry bear.

"That's when I told (Lawler), if things go bad, we might either have to shoot her (if she attacks) or leave the cub here," Lee said.

Lawler, a new deputy with three months on the job, stood by with a gun in hand.

"People don't realize how quiet a bear can move in the woods," Lee said of the 45-minute ordeal. "They can move very fast and, in a second, they can be on top of you."

(It's a myth DNR employees are issued wildlife tranquilizer guns. The powerful drugs used in the guns are highly regulated by federal authorities, and only a few DNR experts are trained and licensed to use them. Lee is not one of them.)

Finally, after about a half-dozen attempts, Lee and Lawler were able to back the sow far enough from the cub so Lee could snatch it and carry it to his pickup and an awaiting cage.

At the Garrison clinic, Baratto and Eskedahl delivered bad news: The cub had a dislocated knee, a broken back and lung damage. It had to be put down.

"We were able to euthanize him rather than have him lie out there," said Baratto, who said the hospital annually rehabs an average of three injured bears and releases them into the wild. She added that this was a job for law enforcement only.

Lee is looking for a taxidermist to preserve the bear, which likely will be donated to a school or nearby Father Hennepin State Park.

He has no regrets about facing down the sow.

"I'd do it again. It appeared it wasn't hurt too badly," Lee said of the cub. "I just wish there would have been a better outcome."

Chris Niskanen can be reached at cniskanen@pioneerpress.com.

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