Not Your Average Bear
By Delores Kuhlwein and Liv Hignite
You might expect to reach in a bag of grain in the barn to find a stowaway like a mouse, or maybe even a rat.
But Liv Hignite of Gold Hill, Oregon, received the surprise of her life today, December 27, 2022, when she discovered a bear cub in her mares’ grain bag.
“The storm took our pump house for an adventure, so this morning while I was checking on horses and all the normal storm damage, I reached in my grain bag to give the mares grain,” she explains.
“I TRULY DID NOT EXPECT TO FIND A BEAR CUB!”
She thought it was a cat at first, then she saw its face more clearly, and she wondered if it was a puppy. “However, when I startled it, it ran into the grain room and I realized it was a bear cub!”
“Now we have bears here,” Liv says. “But they have never been in our barn. They typically stay away. I could tell his health wasn’t great, so I took him inside. I knew mama wasn’t nearby because I had been in the barn all morning and the chickens are all in the barn and nothing had been displaced like a bear typically would do.”
The first thing she did was leave her contact information with several law enforcement agents.
“I’ve been watching the barn all morning and no mama bear has made her way to the barn. If so, I would quickly release him and reunite them,” Liv explains. “He drank Nurse All milk replacement, and got a full belly of grain, I’m sure.”
After reaching out to several resources, it was determined the safest and most legal course of action was to release him and hope for the best. She adds, “He will likely find his way back looking for food again, since he was comfortable here, and in that case, we will have to take him to be evaluated.”
So the bear cub was released in a familiar space (the barn) and Liv says, “he took off for the woods behind our barn. He’s to hoping Mama is in there waiting for him!”
See his video here:
