Bear That Got Electric Shock, Cub Reunited

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A cub reached out Friday and touched a wild mother bear recovering from injuries suffered when she was tranquilized atop a power pole and received a 7,200-volt shock when she fell.

The contact was the first between the two since the cub was captured Sunday in Albuquerque and the adult bear was captured the next day, officials said. Game officials have held off reuniting the two, fearing the cub could cause further damage to the adult bear’s seriously injured hind legs.

Scott Brown, public information officer for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, said the cub was in a small cage that was placed next to the mother bear’s cage. The mother bear could see the cub through the bars, he said.

“She didn’t move away from that,” Brown said. “She did move toward it sometime. The cub’s paws reached out through the bars and slapped her a little bit on the face.”

The meeting lasted about 45 minutes.

“It’s still a bit too early to begin that reintroduction until her healing progresses further,” Brown said. “We fed both of them at the same time, looking to see if she’s relaxed enough to eat with the cub next to her.”

But it was tough to read the mother bear’s emotions because she was in such pain, he said.

After she was shot with a tranquilizer gun, the mother bear fell off the pole and struck a transformer, tumbling to the ground in a cascade of sparks.

She suffered extensive damage to her skin, soft tissue and muscles on both hind legs, Brown said. The bear was taken to the Rio Grande Zoological Park, where she has been given strong medication to relieve the pain.

“The burns are still, of course, very extensive, and there is still extensive damage there,” he said.

“The reason she is in guarded condition is because those injuries were such that, basically, until the healing process is almost over, she’s not out of the woods,” Brown said.

Veterinarians are concerned about the amount of muscle damage because that relates to the bear’s mobility, and officials want her healthy and mobile before she is released.

Department of Game and Fish officials have said that the mother bear and cub probably will be placed together in a supervised wildlife park or refuge if the mother’s injuries are such that she cannot survive on her own in the wild.