DENVER (KDVR) — With everybody heading home for the holidays, Colorado Parks and Wildlife wanted to make sure a pair of bear cubs shared in the experience and released them back into the wild in Boulder on Friday, the organization announced in a post on X.
CPW said that earlier in 2024 one of the cubs was found roaming around Longmont and the other was discovered in Colorado Springs.
Far removed from the young and lost cubs they once were, the bear pair spent several months growing and developing in the Del Norte Rehab Facility. While not the size of an adult bear yet, the CPW staff knew it was time to return these bears to the call of the wild.
To set the bears up for success in their native land, CPW staff mimicked the behavior of wild bears that would be preparing to hibernate for the winter. Over time, they began to stagger and scale back the bears’ feeding schedule to put them on the same cycle as if they were in the wild.
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A bear in the woods near Boulder after being released back into the wild on Nov. 22, 2024. (Photo provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife – Northeast Region) -
A bear in the woods near Boulder after being released back into the wild on Nov. 22, 2024. (Photo provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife – Northeast Region)
On Friday, the staff drove the bears to a spot in the forest in Boulder and released them to their new homes. The bears are now ready to take on the world and create their first-ever den for hibernation. However, from the looks of the video, one bear seemed to make one last attempt to convince the staff to remain in domestic life before eventually scampering off into its new and exciting challenge.
