Three new bears arrive at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care

Three bear cubs arrived in South Lake Tahoe Tuesday, after their mother was killed in a car accident in Yosemite on July 4.

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Co-Founder Tom Milham drove to Lee Vining this morning, to meet people from Yosemite and transferred the cubs to his car.

As is the norm with LTWC, bears are named by the region they come from, so these cubs, about four-five months old, are named Yosemite 1, Yosemite 2 and Yosemite 3.

Immediately after the cubs' mother was killed, there were enough people around to get the bear team in place and trap them. Calls were made to both California Fish & Wildlife (to get permission to send the cubs to Tahoe) and LTWC (To see if they had room).

The cubs started their trek to Tahoe at 9:15 a.m., enjoyed eating red grapes on the way, and were put into the bobcat cage at LTWC. Last year, four cubs lived in that same cage before being released into the wild in February.

"The cubs are doing well," said Milham. "Cheryl (LTWC Director and Co-Founder) fixed up the special high fat milk formula for the bears." They were also fed watermelon.

There is discussion that the Milhams may get another cub, one from Ramona, Calif., in San Diego County because it is better to rehabilitate bears in at least pairs.

The new cubs in town were probably born in February, but are small. One of the boys is 10 pounds, and the other two, a boy and a girl, are eight pounds. Smaller weight is due to a couple of factors, including having three in the litter and being born at a higher elevation.

Tom expects they'll have the cubs until February of next year when Yosemite officials would come and get the three, and San Diego officials for their cub if it ends up coming north. At the time they're released the males will be about 100 pounds, and the girls about 80-90 pounds.

Getting the cubs to that weight is expensive, up to $100 a week per cub. Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care accepts donations to help with expenses for the bears, and their other animals. Visit their website to make donations, http://www.ltwc.org/.

Also on their website are webcams hooked up each house guest's cage.