McCall Idaho Headline News

A little orphan girl was found roaming the streets of Donnelly the first weekend of October and was discovered outside the Donnelly Club trying to scrounge a meal from a garbage can.

What followed was a harrowing experience for the little girl. Bar patrons tried to catch her in a garbage can, barking dogs chased herup atree, and she wandered onto Idaho 55 - Donnelly's main street - while. people tried to stop traffic for her. In the end, she disappeared into the night.

The little orphan girl was a bear cub whose mother was likely struck by a motor vehicle.

Residents reported a dead bear near the highway south of Donnelly, said Jeff Rohlman, regional wildlife manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The Donnelly Club contacted Linda DeEulis, executive director of Snowdon Wildlife Sanctuary, the evening of Oct. 5 about the carousing cub, and DeEulis called Rohlman.

Alone and in unfamiliar territory, the cub became confused and scared as she wandered through Donnelly

On the morning of Oct. 6, the cub wound up in the yard of Loralei "Pinky" Winner, manager of the Donnelly Club. Rohlman arrived armed with a tranquilizer gun after receiving another call that morning and subdued the cinnamon-colored cub after she scaled a tree at Winner's home.

Once the cub was drugged and before going to Snowdon, she was brought to the Donnelly Club for people to see, where Winner's grandchildren got to hold the bear.

"F&G was so awesome to let the kids hold her," said Shirley Buchanan, owner of the Donnelly Club.

'Little Bar Bear'
The "little bar bear," as DeEulis affectionately calls her, was fed a nutritious diet of high-protein dog food, eggs and fruit after arriving at Snowdon.

She wasn't alone for long at the wildlife sanctuary located on Lick Creek Road east of McCall.

As the days rolled by, a few buddies joined the little bar bear, four cubs abandoned by their mothers-. The cubs were brought in from Warren Wagon Road in McCall, Tamarack Resort and New Meadows.

With so many new young ones to care for, DeEulis turned the sanctuary's empty two-acre wolf pen over to the cubs.

DeEulis expects F&G may be picking up more abandoned cubs as winter approaches, and a fifth has been added to the crew.

All those little mouths are eating a lot of food, on average five to eight pounds of dog food each per day. Donations of dog food - any brand - and fruit such as apples, pears and berries but not citrus or bananas are needed, DeEulis said. Call 634-8050 for information.

And they are hungry mouths since all the cubs are underweight and small for their age. From smallest to largest, their weights ranged between 18 and 28 pounds when they were brought in.

The weight of cubs at this time of year should be from 65 to 85 pounds, DeEulis said.

To provide food for Snowdon's new residents, the Central Idaho Historical Museum, 1001 State St., McCall, has started a food drive called "Pumpkins for Pooh,  recycling Halloween jack-o'-lanterns to feed the orphans.

Collection boxes are located in the museum's long, open storage building next to the "public works" truck at the end of the parking lot across from McCall Memorial Hospital.

Because there is not enough food to go around, mother bears are abandoning their cubs to prepare for their winter denning and the little ones are turning up all over, DeEulis said. The drought that stoked monster fires in the back country east of McCall has also dried vegetation, depleting its nutritional value. Food resources in the wild have been scant, and bears have ranged into towns. Had the cubs not been brought to Snowdon, they likely would not survive the winter, DeEulis said.

"They are starving to death," she said. "A whole year's bear crop is dying off."

The cubs will winter at Snowdon and be released into the wild in the spring.

DeEulis praised F&G for its effort to save abandoned cubs. Because of the ursine exodus from the wilds into urban areas, DeEulis is urging people to have bear-proof garbage cans at their homes.