Tag: bear cubs

Bear cubs scale Colorado ski-lift tower as onlookers watch in awe

Footage from a Colorado ski resort shows the two young black bears ascending the gondola structure via its ladder.

Bear cubs love to climb and apparently their skills aren’t restricted to trees.

The accompanying footage shows two young black bears scaling the Wild Blue Gondola lift tower at Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado.

“The bears are climbing the tower,” an employee deadpans through a radio speaker in the footage.

To which comes the reply: “You better be taking videos.”

Onlookers are clearly entertained, while the bears appear comfortable scaling the massive structure… to a point.

The footage shows them stopping, dozens of yards above ground, before one cub begins the precarious task of descending the ladder, rung by rung.

“It’s OK, they’re using lobster claws,” the first employee jokes, referring to belaying ropes used by human climbers.

One onlooker wonders aloud why momma bear is allowing two of her cubs to put themselves in danger.

But black bear cubs begin to climb trees almost instinctively early in life. They probably climbed the tower out of a playful curiosity.

The Wild Blue Gondola takes resort visitors 3.16 miles from the base of the resort to the top of the mountain.

The footage was captured by Sharon Spiegel and shared by Steamboat Radio.

Mother and son who killed two bear cubs pay for crimes; is it enough?

Mother and son poachers committed the crime while trespassing on private property. Now they must pay restitution for their senseless acts.

Mother and son poachers who killed two bear cubs while trespassing on private property in Oregon last October must pay $15,000 in damages.

Gail Faye Freer, 52, and her son Corey Douglas Loving II, 29, also lost their hunting privileges for three years and will be on bench probation for 60 months, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Tuesday.

“There is no excuse for taking two 8-month-old bear cubs, plus the meat was not taken care of and went to waste,” ODFW District Wildlife Biologist Jason Kirchner said. “This is a loss to Oregonians and to those who respect, value, enjoy, and manage our state’s wildlife resources.”

On or about Oct. 9, 2022, Loving and Freer were trespassing on private land when they spotted a bear cub. Freer encouraged Loving to shoot it, and he did.

They returned to the scene later to ensure the cub had died. But they spotted a cub foraging in the same place. Loving shot it, thinking it was the same bear, but it turned out to be a second cub, which they discovered when they approached the bushes.

An anonymous call to the Turn in Poachers (TIP) Line days later led Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Troopers to the carcasses. The mother bear was never found.

Stop Poaching campaign coordinator Yvonne Shaw said the act shows a blatant disregard for wildlife laws.

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“This was a combination of trespassing, poaching and leaving an animal to waste,” Shaw said. “This demonstrates an attitude of lawlessness while they deprive others of the experience of encountering or hunting these animals during a legal season.”

On Jan 1, 2018, Oregon state legislators doubled, tripled and even quintupled poaching penalties for more than a dozen wildlife species, according to The Oregonian. For unlawfully killing a bear, the penalty is $7,500.

The question is, is it enough?

Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.