Small bear cub abandoned at Bear League offices at Lake Tahoe

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - On Mother's Day weekend, someone left a bear cub in a pet crate in the driveway of the Bear League office in Homewood. A note was attached, asking the Bear League to "please help Moses he doesn't have a mother."

The cub was about seven pounds, and almost three months old.

With similarities to the biblical Moses who was placed in a basket and floated down the Nile River to escape death, the bear Moses would have certainly faced death if it was left in the wild alone, without its mother.

But who is his mother, and where is she? And how did whoever left the cub at the Bear League come to have it?

Wildlife authorities are now working on the answers to those questions.

Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League said this isn't the first time this has happened. She said there are a couple of reasons that brought the cub to them - his mother was probably just killed, either by a poacher or even hit by a car. Perhaps the person responsible for the mother's death is the one who dropped him off. It is illegal to poach a bear, and it is also illegal to pick up a bear cub according to Bryant. She wouldn't have let anyone near her cub if the mother was alive.

The cub was in good shape and has been transferred to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Car in South Lake Tahoe by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). Since he is missing a year of growing up with his mother, he'll be in a rehab facility until next spring, if all goes well.

Since Bryant hadn't heard of any bears being hit by a car, the cub could have been brought to Tahoe from another area. She said DFW is testing his DNA to trace its origins, and once the results are back they can determine the region the cub came from.

Since the bear being left at the Bear League is the result of a crime, the situation is under investigation and Bryant can't say much more.

Cubs have been left at the Bear League in the past. Bryant said they are usually from out of the area and they've been able to use DNA to link them to another population of bears.

"Kind people who pick up orphaned bear cubs are doing so illegally, even though it's usually the compassionate thing to do, depending on the circumstances," said the Bear League on social media.

Bryant said the cub was left at night, beyond their cameras so they were trying to stay undetected. She said people realize they could be charged with a crime and therefore secretly leave them somewhere safe where the cub will not be harmed.

This story has been updated.