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Kanai and Koda's Journey

On March 5, 2016 Critter Care got a call from a person in Nelson who found two Black Bear cubs with no mom in sight.

On March 5, 2016 Critter Care got a call from a guy in Nelson who found two Black Bear cubs with no mom in sight. After notifying Conservation Officers and arranging with the airlines they were put on the next flight from Nelson to Vancouver. March 6, 2016 the cubs were admitted to Critter Care, the twin brothers came in at 4 weeks old weighing in at two and three pounds. Kenai (the older brother) came in with eyes partially open and Koda (the younger brother) was completely eyes closed. They were fed every four hours for the first week, as they got older feeds slowly started to drop. By the end of March they were both eyes open and starting to tumble around as they found their feet. They ventured outside for the first time the first week of April and by mid-April they were starting to climb stumps and logs. Once they found their balance they were unstoppable!

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Kenai

Kenai Release Picture

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Koda Release Picture

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As their personalities started to come through it was clear that Kenai was the laid back older brother who put up with Koda as he was the high maintenance younger brother. By the end of April they were one four feeds a day with bits of scrambled eggs and fruit to munch on (apples, applesauce, bananas and grapes). The cubs moved from their indoor space to a small outdoor enclosure mid-May also dropping to three milk feeds a day, getting to play in a pool, wrestling in tree forts and destroying their cardboard mansion. By mid-June they were big enough to move into their large outdoor enclosure and dropped to two feeds in a milk dish. After a couple weeks of them eating more and more real food their feeds dropped to one and they were weaned by mid-July. July 18, 2016 Kenai and Koda were joined by two more cubs Nita and Denahi, brother and sister orphaned when mom was hit by a car from up near Whistler.

A couple weeks later on August 14, 2016 the four cubs were joined by Tanana an older cub that had been orphaned and contained in Coquitlam before coming to Critter Care. All five cubs spent the next four months packing on the weight before hibernation. They started to get really tired beginning of December 2016 and officially started hibernating a couple weeks later. They re-appeared beginning of April 2017 ready for their first meal after hibernation. After three months of packing on the pounds they were ready for release. Tanana was released June 18, 2017, Nita and Denahi were released June 19, 2017 and Kenai and Koda were released June 27, 2017.

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