Animal care workers are optimistic that three young black bear cubs whose mother was killed by conservation officers this week could lose their taste for garbage and eventually be released back into the wild.
The young cubs were taken in by Langley's Critter Care Wildlife Society after their mother was shot for charging an Anmore man on Monday.
After just two days with the seven-month-old cubs, animal care specialist Angela Fontana says she thinks they have a good shot at rehabilitation.
"I expect them to be perfectly fine and ready to go next year when they are released," she told CTV News.
The cubs are still getting used to their new home, but Fontana says that's to be expected.
"They're still sleeping most of the time, which is normal for cubs when they first come in and have been through such a traumatic experience," she said.
The cubs' mother was a chronic nuisance bear, who had already been relocated once from Metro Vancouver to Chehalis Lake.
But she made her way back to the city, and returned to problem behaviours there. She taught a previous litter of cubs to feed on garbage as well, and over the years, all three had to be put down.
"It's a very sad situation," said Tony Webb of the North Shore Black Bear Network. "The root of the problem is that there was garbage around. We keep trying to tell people to manage their garbage in a non-attractive bear way, and there are still probably 20 per cent of people who are not doing that."
For now, the problem bear's orphaned cubs are healthy, and will soon be moved into an enclosure with another young bear.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Brent Shearer
