"Elkhorn," the black bear cub found "barely moving" by a hiker, was sent to PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynwood, Wash. Friday, where he will be able to develop without being habituated to humans, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Corey Hancock of Salem found the bear while on a hike Monday evening. He said the bear appeared to be dying and no mother was around. He ultimately made the decision to rescue the cub.

It is against the law to remove animals from their habitat. Hancock was warned about his actions by Oregon State Police but was not cited.

ODFW veterinarian Julia Burco and others treated the bear cub for mild pneumonia after he was picked up from Turtle Ridge Wildlife Rehab in Salem, where Hancock dropped him off.

Charles Harmansky-Johnson of Turtle Ridge called Hancock a "hero" for bringing in the cub. The cub could not stay at Turtle Ridge or any wildlife rehab in Oregon, however. There are no facilities in Oregon licensed to handle bear rehabilitation, which is why the baby bear was sent to Washington.

But Elkhorn won't be alone on his journey. He'll be joined by a female black bear cub that was brought into the ODFW Corvallis office on Thursday.

The female cub was found near Roseburg after her den was disturbed by someone doing commercial work, state wildlife veterinarian, Colin Gillin, said over the phone Friday. After the cub was found, she was collected and put back in her den, but the mother bear did not return while the work continued in the area.

Gillin acknowledged that it can be very difficult for humans to avoid picking up baby animals that they think are abandoned.

"The normal person's perception, all of our perceptions, and what should actually be done is a difficult thing to parcel out," he said.

"We tend to make decision way quicker," than we should, he added. "We think, 'It's better that I do something now than something bad happen [if I wait.]'"

Still, it is best to call ODFW or a wildlife rehab center if you see what appears to be an abandoned baby animal in the wild, he said. Frequently, those animals have only been temporarily left by their mothers.

And usually, when humans pick up a baby animal, the outcome isn't as good as it has been for the two bear cubs found this week. Often, people keep the animals at their homes until they become habituated to humans and it is too late to release them.

Gillin told the story of one fawn that they found in a garage when it was a yearling buck with growing antlers.

The animal had been kept in a garage almost its whole life and only ate corn.

"We made the decision to euthanize the animal," Gillin said.

"We don't take it lightly," he told us. "It's difficult."

Luckily, the two cubs are now at a rehab facility that should give them a fighting chance of survival when they are big enough to join the 25,000 to 30,000 black bears in living in Oregon.

Gillin said that the female bear is two pounds heavier than the male bear and "very health and more developed."

The male bear was "very dehydrated" when he was found, said Gillin, and is being fed through a tube, though he is "coming along and was very vocal this morning."

Gillin believes that the male bear was being moved from his den when his mother left him. "You could come up with a lot of reasons why" his mother dropped him there, he said, though they are all completely speculative.

But Gillin said it is early in the season for cubs to be out of the den and he doubts that either, but especially the male, could have moved themselves.

Because the bears are young and not habituated to humans, Gillin said he believes there is a good chance they will be reintroduced into the wild, but he said, they face a difficult future.

Compared to being raised in the wild by their mothers, anything else is much worse, he told us.

"Any other option is not even a close second to having a wild and free ranging black bear," Gillin said. "As good as these rehabilitation centers do, that bear is still at a disadvantage."

That's because bears who develop at a rehab center never get the knowledge that mother bears pass down, like what to avoid and how to avoid those things. Though these bears have the advantage of growing up together, they will have to discover everything about being bears for themselves.

"They'll ultimately be together," Gillin said. "You just hope they have enough instincts."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker