CNN
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Gloves, fur coats, bear masks. This outfit may sound like avant-garde fashion, but it is actually the uniform of a caretaker of the San Diego Humane Society raising orphan black bear children.
A camper van in California’s Lospadres National Forest found a turnip in April. Biologists with the state’s Fish and Wildlife Department looked for the mother of the turnip for several days. After there were no signs of her, humanitarian society took him there.
The Cubs, nearly two months old when he was taken, is the youngest black bear the organization has ever cared for, according to Autumn Welch, the association’s wildlife operations manager and one of the turnip caregivers.
“At that age he was with his mother 24/7 and never really ventured out of the nest,” Welch said. “He would definitely not have survived on his own, so he would probably be rehabilitating for about a year.”
The goal is to ultimately bring the turnip back into the wild. Therefore, the bear outfit worn by his caretakers reduces the risk of him engraving on humans.
But does the costume actually convince him to the turnips being cared for by other bears?
According to Welch, they do. She said the caregiver recently tested by entering his enclosure without a costume to prevent the Cubs from identifying them as human.
“He ran up the tree in fear,” Welch said. “That’s what we want.”
Caregivers wear real fur coats donated to the Humane Society, Welch said. To make the costume even more trustworthy, the fur is stored in airtight containers with hay sourced from a local wildlife sanctuary that houses bears. She said the hay helps the fur smell like black bears.
“I don’t know if he sees us like a surrogate mom right now,” she said. “We’re his playmates like his brother, and it’s the kind of thing that comes, and if he wants to play with us, we’ll redirect him to a teddy bear.”
Along with the teddy bear, the turnip enclosure is filled with donated fur, black bear-scented hay, trees and plenty of places for him to climb and simulate a burrow, Welch said.
The cub is asleep and hides in one of each of the big teddy bears. Welch thinks he considers him to be his mother.
“This big teddy bear was something that provided him with comfort,” Welch said. “When we weren’t there, he sought shelter by her side, opposed her, took a nap and hugged her with the bear.”
Caregivers use their time in the turnip enclosure to teach him the skills his mother has taught him, how to climb, how to find eating grass and insects, how to build a nest.
“It was great to see him hit various milestones,” she said. “I remember when he first ate a bug, he digs up the dirt and picks out the beetles and eating them.
The San Diego Humane Society staff are not the first to care for orphaned wildlife. Employees at the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia were wearing fox masks while caring for orphan kits. At the Wildlife Midlands Centre in South Africa, employees taught orphan chicks how to drink water using makeshift crane costumes.
Welch said wearing a mask to care for young wildlife was a strategy he used when bottling baby raccoons and coyote puppies. She said that it is important because young wildlife is so impressive.
They have never cared for such a young bear, so they had to order supplies, including bear masks. Welch estimates it will cost $72,000 to care for the turnip for a year.
“It’s a labor of love,” she said. “We’re happy to help these animals, bring them back and see him thrive in the wild one day. It’s going to be the best we’ve ever had.”