Sandi Briggs finished work in Clearwater a bit earlier than usual on June 23, and headed home on Highway 5 towards Barriere where she lives with her husband, Colin Brown.
Near Little Fort, Briggs saw flashing lights ahead on what appeared to be a traffic control vehicle used regularly for a pipeline contract company working in the North Thompson. As she was about to slowly pass the vehicle, she realized that a large black bear had been tragically hit, and within seconds saw a little dark bear cub push its head through the grasses nearby.
Briggs was not certain the young woman near the truck noticed the cub and pulled over to turn around. When she arrived on the scene, a company safety truck was not far behind, and she was told that the local conservation officer had been contacted and should be arriving soon. RCMP attended, and hearing that the CO was on the way left for another call.
By then another cub had been spotted nearby, and both cubs had scrambled up a tree not far away.
“I was relieved to see the cubs go up into the tree, knowing they were safer there for the time being so close to the highway. I remembered seeing this television show about bear rescue in B.C., so I looked it up on my phone and placed a call to Northern Lights Wildlife Society [NLWS] in Smithers,” said Briggs.
Within the hour a plan was quickly put in place in a chain of events that was described as “heartwarming” by the co-founder and manager of NLWS, Angelika Langen.
“These rescues usually involve a lot of people who make things like this happen,” she told Black Press. “It worked out very well. We got the call from the CO that a couple had reported the sow hit, and he turned it over to us because he was unable to attend. There are so few officers these days; they just don’t have the time for these kinds of things.
“I turned it over to our board member from Hope, Lydia Koot. She had just returned home from giving a Bear Aware program at a school in Lytton. When I called her, she quickly reloaded her car with the cub capture cages and headed to Little Fort, wanting to get there before dark. Sandi and her husband promised not to leave the cubs until somebody arrived, and had been there for hours.”
Langen had spoken with Argo Road contractors about not moving the deceased mother bear until the cubs were safely caught. “Cubs will always return to the mother, even if she is dead. There’s a much higher chance of capturing them than if the highways department removes the momma.”
Once Koot arrived from Hope with the capture kits, the RCMP returned to be sure she had their contact information just in case.
Briggs and Brown also provided their info, and she called them around 5 a.m. to ask for assistance. Both cages had been placed on either side of the mother and there was a successful capture in each cage by the time Briggs and Brown returned to help load the two male cubs.
The experience has inspired the couple to also apply to become volunteers with NLWS, with the paperwork on its way for approval.
Briggs sounded emotional when speaking with Black Press, describing her personal love for the animals prior to this. “I’ve always felt that the bear is my ‘spirit animal’,” she said. “I’m so glad they are safe.” The couple plans on adding their names to the list of volunteer drivers in the North Thompson in the future.
In a brief phone interview with Koot, who was on her way to visit the bear cubs at NLWS in Smithers, she said “I find it an honour to do this work, rescuing cubs. Yes, it’s sad to lose the mothers, but so important to save these cubs and hopefully give them a chance at a normal life again. It really does take a ‘village’ of volunteers and I hope I’ll be there when they are released next year.”
The cubs have already been given Disney names: Hiro and Tadashi, from the movie Big Hero 6, who are brothers who were orphaned together at a young age. The furry brothers have settled into a group of six other orphaned cubs at the wildlife shelter, where they will stay until they are returned in about a year to the North Thompson area to live in the wild again.
According to Langen, who manages the shelter with her husband, adult children and grandchildren, June is their busiest month, and they conduct many rescues and releases each season as a family operation with the support of many volunteers.
“It was such a heartwarming outpouring of cooperation to make this all come together to help these cubs. People like Sandi, Colin, and Lydia put their lives on hold to make sure these cubs were safe.”
Editor’s note: We will be checking in on Tadashi and Hiro, and have been invited to be present when the cubs are returned next year via a volunteer transfer team from Northern Lights Wildlife Society.