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Arizona Game and Fish Dept.
This orphaned black bear cub was found inside a home in southeast Arizona on Thursday.
A hungry, orphaned black bear cub that entered an Arizona home -- eating chocolate cake before being discovered by the awakened homeowners -- has been sent to a local zoo, according to wildlife officials who called 2012 a "difficult" one for southeast Arizona bears due to wildfires and drought.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officers on Thursday responded to a call of a black bear inside a home in the Sonoita area, the agency said in a statement.
"Homeowners awoke to find a bear cub had entered their home through an open kitchen window and eaten some chocolate cake," the agency stated. "Since there was no sign of an adult bear in the area, Game and Fish removed the cub and transferred the orphaned bear to the Heritage Park Zoo in Prescott."
Since the cub is too young to fend for itself in the wild, it's expected to become part of a future zoo exhibit.
"This year has proved difficult for bears in southeastern Arizona," the agency added. "The combination of last year’s fires and ongoing drought has resulted in a scarcity of natural food sources."
The agency posted a photo of the bear cub on its Facebook page, along with a warning. "Remember: Bears have an incredibly keen sense of smell even from long distances and human food is very attractive to them!" it said.
Arizona has an estimated 2,500 black bears, the only bear species found in the state.
TODAY's Natalie Morales takes a look at a video from Colorado where a woman yelled at a black bear who had wandered onto her back porch – and actually scared off the enormous animal.
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Nice to see it make it to a zoo instead of some a-hole shooting it
Baby Cecil, a cartoon character of yesteryear. --- --- "...and when Mommy bakes cake, she never lets me have more than three pieces. Three pieces, that's all I ever get, and most of the time there isn't any ice cream to go with it. Yesss, I really know what want is." (Matilda aside!) I wonder if this little bear cub got ice cream to go with his cake.
I'm glad the cub wasn't shot. There is a lot of misconceptions about black bears out there. The Wildlife Research Institute and the North American Bear Center are trying to correct that by replacing misconceptions with scientific facts. For more information about black bears check out bear.org and bearstudy.org. The research that has been done is amazing. There is a community that has been using diversionary feeding for over 50 years with nuisance complaints 80% lower than the statewide average. Humans and black bears can peacefully coexist. Black bears really are amazing shy creatures not the snarling vicious animals portrayed in the movies and on television. Please take time to check out the truth about black bears at bear.org and bearstudy.org.
I know if I broke in I'd go for the chocolate cake. Hope they name him Chocolate. Poor little bear.
So Happy that they didn't kill the cub, and despite being caged up, I'm happy they've places it into the zoo where it can be cared for, at least until it's old enough to find for it's own. If it stays at the zoo, then hopefullyit will be in an area where it can roam and climb tress and do bear things. With not only the drought and wildfires but development it's really hard on wildlife...hopefully one day before it's too late people will take it under more consideration and allow more space for the wild.
What a cutie! I hope the zoo gives the little munch some chocolate cake on his its first birthday!
(To all the gun-toting, tea-bagging, Ted-Nugent-loving twits out there...HA, there's one you don't get to shoot.)
you are an idiot
Cub was lucky he escaped some hunter with a super high powered magnum rifle. All in the interest of the hunt of course. TIC
I am a social worker who usually helps kids and other victims. I have to say-no blanket lawyer statements, ditto for doctors and psych. There are lots of professionals , doing the right thing, working 7 days a week until late, making peanuts, unpaid for the extra 40 hours a week. Ditto for those of us who could go into private practice and make a lot more. These people I came to know have top credentials and could easily have just gotten disgusted and change career paths-private practice, top firm, etc. Then, there were the ones who would fight for a dirtbag to get his/her kids back from the other spouse, often an abused woman. The dirtbags often had plenty of money for lawyers and their own "expert" psych, and outmatched the lawyers working for the kids and other victims, not on skills (and passion takes you far) but simply because the dirtbags attorney and psych have the time, and billable hours, as a motivation. How they sleep at night is beyond me.
We are encroaching, which is why we have more and more heartbreaking scenarios like this one here, the Mustangs, gray wolves, cougars, etc. Couple that with limited resources, exacerbated by natural, and man-made, disasters such as the fires, the economy in general...However, I know none of us know wghat the right answer here-better to be euthanized than in a zoo? Better overall for people to look into the sad eyes of a victim of encroachment?
As for encroachment, which comes from too many people for the earth to sustain, I would be emb to say this in person but a lot of the statements expressed here, about certain people not creating more people (and encroachment), make sense. A case comes in with 6 kids, 5 different fathers and you just can't help thinking "what if?..."
WHAT???? Do you have a word quota per day? Less is better...make your point and move on!
@ Shi, "Less is better" Not always. Some people actually like to try and make the logic for their thinking clear, instead of just posting a simple opinion. While I don't support paragraphs of technical jargon, it is nice to see that a few people have some reason behind their reasoning or that they have thought about the issue at hand instead of just posting unsupported nonsense. Also, Movinonout stated that they are a social worker which in itself explains the in depth chatter, especially if he/she is an MSW/LCSW then they have been educated to consider multiple aspects of any given situation and simple sentences don't convey such information. Such as my daily word quota just now. On the other hand, if you thought their post was too long then why did you stop to comment instead of taking your own advice and just "move on"? Just mho...
Damn...in the effort to reply, I clicked the "like" on your comment! I take that back! :)
I do not see where 95% of movin's post had absolutely ANYTHING to do with the article. It was rambling at best. I think you are trying to bate me into an argument with your lengthy response, but that won't happen. Of course, everyone has the right to post whatever they wish. I just wish it would stay on topic. Occasionally, I like to read these posts and many, many of them are compassionate and intelligent. But then you have the trolls who just want to be hateful, mean, or make comments that have no substance to the story. I found this post to be the latter for the most part, which is why I commented, which I rarely do. But I've had one too many cups of coffee this morning and felt the need, which is my right also.
Does my rambling satisfy you? Of course, I'm being totally antagonistic and basically a sh*t for responding. Now I'm off to enjoy a beautiful day in the park, never to think of this again! Have a Lovely Day Been! ~Peace~
Is there EVER a story that some idiots don't bring politics into the mix? Good Gawd!! SO Annoying!
Sweet little thing...sorry he'll(she) have to live the rest of his/her life out in a zoo. It would be nice if they could re-introduce it back into the wild.
Sadly the wilds are disappearing through development or natural disasters. The animals are becoming more and more displaced, then punished for trying to survive. The zoo was the best outcome. At least the cub will be cared for and have enough food to eat. Hopefully the cub is not already hooked on junk food.
Hey..what can I tell ya? I'd have gone to the house with the chocolate, too!!
Good thing for this bear he doesn't live in Washington, they'd probably have "culled" him.... sorry, I mean KILLED him for eating that cake.
Is is me or are these bears and humans getting a little too used to each other? I don't know what I would do if I ever found a bear in my house however young or small.
I suspect the cub's mother had begun teaching it to raid homes before they became seperated. It would not have been long before they were located or killed. This was the best outcome. Poor things, there are less and less places for them to go.
Poor bear. Locked up for life. He should have eaten the cake and left. And let nature take its course.
Thanks Arizona for giving that baby a chance to grow up unlike some states in the last few weeks!!!!!
I live in Arizona and leave all of my windows open every night hoping a chocolate cake will crawl through.
good thing it wasnt in Montana where the motto is KILL IT! They just killed 7 black bear because a human made a mistake.
Sad story. Happy ending.
The future headline-- Bear cub killed to protect cakes in local neighborhood......
ExpectUS
That bear takes the cake!!! It probably intended to eat it too...
There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever; that poor little bear cub is a victim of the George W. Bush "fund-everything-with-a-tax-cut" economy. Mama and Papa bear were totally broke and could not 'bear' the thought of watching poor junior die of starvation while being completely powerless to save him. They knew that the useless crackheads, welfare slugs, illegals, meth lab operators and other slime balls, that government employed inbreeds hold in such high esteem, sit way further up the food chain than they do. This comes naturally to gubmint employees because these society's finest are the only thing that justifies their sorry asses in having a job. If the disease carrying imbeciles had to cut it in the private sector.....well....they would be doing the same thing as this poor little bear cub.
Fire 60% of the retarded governemnt workers and use the savings to help balance the GD'ed budget! ...and help feed BooBoo.
Where's Yogi?
Yes, It has ate human food and needs to be killed. Like they did with the seven bears earlier this week when they caught a women feeding then. We can't have that it will always want cake now. And no Zoo will want it.
That sweet tooth will get you every time.
It's that damn Goldilocks Syndrome.
who does the bear vote for, my bet obama
I guess this little bear wasnt part of GWB's " NO CUBS LEFT BEHIND " program....