MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Bear cubs orphaned last summer to be released into the wild
Dean Miller
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – News media are welcome as five bear cubs orphaned this past summer are released back into the wild on Thursday, Dec. 4, by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers.
CPW officers will retrieve the cubs Thursday from CPW’s Frisco Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility near Del Norte in the San Luis Valley and transport them to two separate locations within the region for release. Wildlife rehabilitation staff have fitted two of the cubs with GPS ear tag transmitters supplied through a data gathering partnership with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. The zoo’s Member Conservation Vote approved funding for the transmitters which are critical to ongoing effort to monitor bear movement after release.
Transmitters allow CPW to track movements on a delayed basis following the bears from release, through torpor (similar to hibernation) and into spring and early adulthood, transmitting location data every 10-14 days.
“We are grateful for our partnership with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, whose members help fund conservation efforts, including these GPS devices, to help Colorado Parks and Wildlife study pressing issues,” said Deme Wright, CPW District Wildlife Manager. The research partnership was launched in 2022.
Urban bear conflict is a recurring issue the region faces, especially for bears attracted to food or trash near homes and businesses. Ongoing study into the effectiveness of rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs is crucial to future mitigation efforts.
Three of the orphaned bears were recovered in a Broadmoor area neighborhood in southwest Colorado Springs in July; two were recovered in a neighborhood north of Woodland Park in August.
MEDIA AVAILABILITY: News media interested in covering the release should pre-register their representative’s name and cell number by email to [email protected] no later than Wednesday at 4 p.m. Media are welcome at Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southeast Region Headquarters, 4255 Sinton Rd, Colorado Springs, for brief staff interviews and imagery as the bears are brought to the region from the Frisco Creek wildlife rehabilitation facility. Media are welcome to continue on with wildlife officers to a regional relocation site approximately two hours from Colorado Springs. Limited CPW media transportation is available and media may also follow in their own all-wheel drive vehicles. Registered media will be notified of the bear arrival and departure times from CPW. If weather conditions force a date change, registered media will be notified.
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is an enterprise agency, relying primarily on license sales, state parks fees and registration fees to support its operations, including: 43 state parks and more than 350 wildlife areas covering approximately 900,000 acres, management of fishing and hunting, wildlife watching, camping, motorized and non-motorized trails, boating and outdoor education. CPW's work contributes approximately $6 billion in total economic impact annually throughout Colorado.
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