A wildlife rehabilitation centre in northern B.C. has released heartwarming video of dozens of bear cubs enjoying a fruit snack, as it struggles with a record number of animals in its care.
The Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Smithers currently has 26 black bears cubs – about double its usual intake. The group expects more to trickle in through coming months, and it could have 40 by the fall.
The group has just wrapped up a fundraising campaign to expand its facilities and build a new bear enclosure.
A video posted to its Facebook page shows its brood of bruins munching on apples donated to the non-profit rehabilitation centre.
In a Facebook post, the society says many of the baby bruins are orphaned when their mothers get struck by cars.
Bears frequently munch on grass and berries at the side of the road and then get hit, it says.
The society says all of the bears in the video will have a second chance at life once they are released back into the wild.
It has rehabilitated 370 bears in the past 26 years, and says only around two per cent of the released animals make human contact once they are back in the wild.
