The day was not off to a good start, heavy clouds hung in the sky as we were preparing for the planned transport of our four grizzlies. The team of volunteers had worked hard to prepare everything, but the weather was totally out of our hands. Bad weather would prevent the helicopter flight from taking place and that could spell huge trouble for this release.
The media arrived first, so look in your newspapers and TV stations. Discovery Channel, Canada AM, CFTK-TV, Province and Vancouver Sun are some of the more well known media coverage’s we received. Lots of filming and pictures went on and of course the interviews that Peter and I always dread. J IFAW communications and photography expert Michael Booth also arrived and would be the only media person that would document the whole release with film and pictures.
Just after 11 am BC Wildlife Veterinarian Helen Schwantje arrived along with Nigel Caulkett
from the Calgary University. Nigel is a wildlife anesthesiologist and had offered his expertise to the project to ensure the right mixture of drugs for the bears safety and comfort as well as to conduct some studies on the bears metabolism while tranquilized. . The bears were darted by Helen with the tranquilizer gun. By the way she is an excellent marks(wo)man. Drew received the first dart, then Dean, Jason and Lori. By now the rain was coming down in earnest and all of us got a good soaking. Dean was sleeping first and Jason dropped almost immediately, but both Drew and Lori fought hard to overcome their sleepiness and needed top-ups. Once asleep the bears were carried out of the enclosure (it took a minimum of 6 people to lift one bear) and outside were assessed by the veterinarians. Blood, hair and skin samples were taken for DNA and other analysis.
Dr. John Beecham , an internationally recognized bear rehabilitation expert, had agreed to fit the bears with the all important radio collars. Dr. Beecham has been an invaluable adviser in the creation and growth of this project and we were happy to see him again for this release. Each bear received a colorful necklace, Lori pink, Drew red, Jason orange and Dean yellow. These collars will take location information every hour and send it to our computer every 4 hours. A sophisticated GPS program than translates those signals into a Google map which gives us a very accurate movement pattern for each bear. The collars will gather information until September 2012 when they are programmed to fall off the bears. The bears also received a tattoo on the inside of their lip to allow for positive identification in the future if it should become necessary. We also tranquilized black bear Cinnamon , as he also is a Bella Coola resident, and loaded him on our truck for transport.
Each grizzly bear was loaded into a culvert trap and transported to town for weighing at the local mill. Lori and Drew reached a respectable 130 kg (286 lb) and Jason and Drew came up with an incredible 170kg (375 lb). Exact weights where an important fact for fuel calculations of the planned helicopter flight. The bears were then loaded onto a flat deck trailer. Bandstra Transport, a trucking company that has facilitated transport for countless animals coming to the shelter, this time helped us to release some. At 6 pm truck driver Bert pulled out of the Bandstra Yard with 4 bears on board, followed closely by our truck carrying Dr. John Beecham , Michael Booth and Peter and myself. The second vehicle carried Helen Schwantje, Nigel Caulkett and shelter volunteer Annette Zimmolong.
A 13 hour trek began and ended with a lot of very tired people in Bella Coola the next morning. By 10 am the traps were unloaded ad Hodgsen Freight and we thank Daryell for his support as unloading would have been nearly impossible without his help.
Thankfully the dreadful rain that had marked our whole journey now subsided and allowed us to relax as flying would be possible. The team now grew with Conservation officers Len Butler and Andrew Milne joining, as well as local Bear Aware coordinator Elli Archer. You may remember that CO Milne was instrumental in the rescue of Jason and Drew and that Drew was named after his rescuer. CO Milne was happy to see his protégée again and marveled at his size. Tony Hamilton the BC governments Large Carnivore Specialist also joined at this time. The traps now were moved to West Coast Helicopter for flight preparation. Helen and Nigel again worked their magic and tranquilized the first set of bears Lori and Dean. The task was to keep them sleeping for the duration of the flight (about 45 minutes) but to become awake quickly once dropped off in the wilderness. Peter (as he is “papa” bear), Conservation Officer Andrew Milne (as protection, should the bears awake prematurely and pose a threat to human safety) and Michael Booth (our media connection) from IFAW were chosen to accompany the bears in a second helicopter.
Lift off turned into a very emotional few minutes for me, with a number of conflicting emotions churning inside me. There was definitely joy and pride to see them go, but also a good dose of fear and worry for their future and we will miss them in our shelter were they have been a source of wonder and awe for the past 7 months.
The helicopter returned 2 hours later to pick up Drew and Jason. The pilot reported that the drop off had worked extremely well and that Dean was up and moving, but Lori was still sleeping. The other helicopter and crew had stayed with the bears and was meeting Drew and Jason at their drop off point. (The bears where dropped in two separate alpine valleys with excellent berry crops) The second take off also went without a hitch and Drew and Jason were on their flight to freedom. Annette, Elli and I made a trip to release black bear Cinnamon, who was more than happy to leave us humans behind him.
A couple of hours later the helicopter and people returned. Peter reported that they had to return to the first release site after releasing Drew and Jason, as Lori was still sleeping when they left. Concern grew to panic when at approach they found Lori still in the same position as they had left her. Had she died? The anxiety in the helicopter reached astronomical levels as it descended once more and then a sigh of immense relief escaped from each person as a groggy Lori stumbled up to a sitting position as the helicopter approached.
The collars are working well and we will report periodically on the movements of the bears. We are all VERY tired, but also VERY, VERY HAPPY that these 4 bears are back where they belong. Nature can be cruel and unforgiving and there are no guarantees that the bears will survive, but this is their home, their life and we thank everyone, the volunteers, supporters, donors, IFAW, and the BC Government for making this project possible. Now we can only hope that the gathered scientific data will support to implement this project into an ongoing bear management option. We are still at least 3 years away from conclusive answers, but we certainly made some very good steps in the right direction because of many, many people that lend their support to this pilot project. All of you are wonderful and have our heartfelt gratitude. I hope that this story and the pictures will give you some of the joy and satisfaction that we felt, as we left the bears sitting by a stream!
Angelika Langen
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