Karl Puckett

Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game warden located two orphaned 5-pound black bear cubs Wednesday in their den, likely saving their lives.

The mother of the cubs was struck and killed by a vehicle on Highway 200 near Rogers Pass late Tuesday afternoon.

Game wardens had located the den of the three bears Tuesday evening, but the surviving cubs were not in it, said Brady Murphy, a FWP game warden based in Augusta.

“I just went back this morning and thought I’d go check, and there they were,” Murphy said Wednesday afternoon.

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The collision occurred on Highway 200 three miles east of Rogers Pass.

The den was located about a quarter of a mile away on the edge of Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

“They were pretty docile,” Murphy said.

He picked them up and put them in a carrier, he said.

Instinct probably enabled the cubs to find their way back to the den, Murphy said. The den also was not far from the location of the accident, he noted.

The cubs were transported to the Montana Wildlife Center in Helena.

The center rehabilitates orphaned wildlife for the purpose of release back to the wild, said Ron Aasheim, an FWP spokesman.

“They fatten up in a hurry,” Aasheim said.

Typically, orphaned cubs are released in the spring or the fall, and a chip is placed in them so they can be tracked, Aasheim said.

Both hard and soft releases occur. A soft release is when cubs are put in a den during the winter. Then the bears wake up in their natural environment.

The release program has been “remarkably successful,” Aasheim said.

The number of orphaned black bear cubs ranges from five or six a year to as many as 25, Aasheim said.

Murphy suspects the three bears were crossing the highway to get a drink in a river when the vehicle struck the mother.

The cubs, just a few months old, were in good shape.

“I’m sure they’re hungry,” Murphy said. “They’d been without mama for a while.”

Mike Madel, an FWP bear management specialist, said Wednesday morning that the cubs had little chance for survival on their own.

The mother bear that was struck and killed was young and small, Madel said.

The driver of the vehicle was not injured, said Capt. Brent Colbert of the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Over the years, a number of animals, especially black bears, have been struck by vehicles along that stretch of Highway 200, which passes through national forest land, Madel said.

There are an estimated 13,500 black bears in Montana, according to FWP.

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