Our daughter, Maya, is a full-time student who also works part time for the California Department of Fish and Game. Yesterday, she and her boss (and a truck full of cohorts) drove to Truckee to begin preparations for the release of a bear cub, whose mother was hit by a car and killed. Those preparations included tranquilizing the little fellow (who actually weighs 80 pounds), then snuggling it into a hibernation den – a cozy villa lined with straw and pine boughs – in the hope it will sleep for the rest of the winter. It was tagged with a transmitter, so that biologists can track the bear’s progress when it wakes up.
The cub is the first of five that Fish and Game will return to the wild this winter.
