It is a sad day in the Village as we learned one of the six bear cubs that were rescued in 2022, and recently released into the wild, was shot and killed by hunters.
You may have been one of the hundreds of people watching these cubs flourish at a rehabilitation center in Idaho for the past year, and were thrilled when they were released into the wild this past May.
Unfortunately, instead of releasing these cubs around Incline Village within the Tahoe Basin, which is standard operating procedure, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) chose to release them in an area in California where bear hunting is allowed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. That state allows hunters as a group to kill 1,700 hundred black bears per year during their “black bear harvest” whereas most locals in the Tahoe Basin want the bears to be able to roam free in their natural habitat without intervention. It remains a constant conflict between leaving nature as is and controlling wildlife populations.
Oz, as he was lovingly nicknamed, was a little over one year old and only weighed 150 pounds. He had enjoyed life in the wild for a mere three months before he became someones trophy. It’s a shame as the rehabilitation center invests a lot of time and energy into giving these cubs a fighting chance only to learn their journey ends much too soon. Oz leaves behind his sister, Opal, and his four pals Bruiser, Pawl, Tino, and Lucy. Here’s hoping their journey in the wild is uneventful.
Would you like to support our Tahoe bears? Consider donating to one of the many organizations focused on making sure our bears have a fighting chance: