Anything for a selfie. Last Tuesday, a crew was filmed pulling bear cubs from a tree and posing for photos. One of the animals was captured before being released to the ground. He then tried to climb the fence and escaped. A witness who lives in an apartment complex in Berrington, North Carolina, captured the scene on video.
“They chased after him to get him back, but eventually a maintenance worker intervened and told them to stop,” Rachel Stott said. ABC News. The 21-year-old man later called police and provided them with the video, which was aired by American media.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission dispatched an expert to the scene. Biologist Ashley Hobbs found the cub in a retention pond. He was “wet and cold” and “sometime alone.” “The bear may have had a traumatic experience,” says the expert. The animal has been temporarily housed at a center where it will recover and will soon be released into the wild.
“It's just ignorance, total selfishness.”
It is not unusual for a female to place her young in a tree at this time of year. “We found the people who pulled the bear from the tree and (…) explained to them how reckless and dangerous it was for this cub to be separated from its mother,” continues the biologist.
Jody Williams, founder of Help Asheville Bears, made the call abc13news Give people better education and take this video as an example of what we should definitely not do. “It's just ignorance, total selfishness. We don't talk about this when we talk about coexistence (between animals and humans),” he adds.