A black bear cub that scurried back into the North Carolina wilderness recently is still known to most by a name alluding to how she became an orphan.
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In April, a group of people had wrestled the cub out of a tree in Asheville, where she had been perched beside another cub that wildlife officials presumed was her sibling. One person appeared to pose for a photo while holding the cub before dropping it on the ground. The cub scrambled away, apparently attempting to climb a fence to get back to the trees, but to no avail.
Video of the incident was shared by authorities as a lesson on what humans should not do to bear cubs, with viewers dubbing the animal “selfie bear.”
On Wednesday, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission announced that “selfie bear” was released back into the Western North Carolina mountains in October after six months of rehabilitation.
Data from the cub’s GPS collar shows she is “adjusting well” back in the wild, said Ashley Hobbs, the commission’s coordinator for a program focused on coexisting with black bears. Hobbs added in a statement Wednesday that wildlife officials expected the cub to “follow its instincts” and find a proper place to den for the coming winter.
“Bear cubs are resilient animals, and it looks like this cub won’t be an exception,” Hobbs said.
The second cub was never located, the wildlife commission said. It is still unclear whether the cubs were in the tree because they were waiting for their mother to return or if they were already orphans.
The cubs were together in the tree at an apartment complex in Asheville in mid-April, according to officials. A bystander took the now-infamous video showing a group of at least six people surrounding the bears.
The group wrangles one of the cubs out of the tree, and one person carries her a few feet away before posing for a photo. At the same time, others in the group can be seen trying, but failing, to pull the second cub from the tree.
Once on the ground, “selfie bear” runs along a fence, seemingly trying to climb over it and back into the trees.
“It wants to get back to its brother or sister,” one of the bystanders says in the video. “Oh! And it can’t because it’s too small.”
The person who had posed for the photo with the cub runs after it, as a bystander in the video shouts: “Put it back! It’s scared!”
The person who took the video contacted the sheriff in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville. When staff from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission arrived to the apartment complex, they learned that one of the cubs had bitten a group member, and both cubs had escaped. The staffers later found “selfie bear” in a pond near the apartment complex.
In an April news release, Hobbs said the cub was in poor condition and looked “lethargic and frightened.” She was found wet and shivering and appeared to be favoring one of her front paws.
After the incident, the wildlife resources commission reminded residents in North Carolina — where keeping a black bear cub is illegal — to never feed, approach or attempt to capture bear cubs, all of which can hinder rehabilitation.
The “selfie bear” was the ninth cub rehabilitated and released by the commission this year, the commission said.
She was released at an unspecified location in Western North Carolina. Video distributed by the commission shows the cub running off into the mountains within seconds.
After she leaves the frame, the person who released the cub fires a siren after her, a measure to maintain her natural fear of humans, the commission said.