A bear cub spotted amid a wildfire on Smokey Bear's 50th anniversary is recuperating after its four paws were badly burned in a futile search through the embers for something to eat.
The 18-month-old Nevada black bear was first seen on Tuesday, 50 years after the Forest Service launched its famous campaign against forest fires. The bear was foraging along the California-Nevada border 12 miles west of Reno, where a 7,310-acre fire burned three houses and ravaged the bear's habitat."This bear is not unlike the people who lost their homes. They're looking for their dining room table and it was looking for its dining room table," Guy Pence, Carson district ranger for the Toiyabe National Forest, said Thursday.
Wildlife officials, firefighters and Sierra Pacific Power Co. workers managed to get a rope around the 49-pound female on Wednesday, then threw a blanket over the cub's head. It wasn't easy.
"It put up a pretty good struggle," Pence said. "They are extremely strong. Their forearms are very muscular. But it couldn't run or go very fast."
The bear was taken to Sierra Pet Clinic in Truckee, Calif., where its paws were treated and wrapped in mitten-like bandages.
Keepers are mostly feeding the bear what it would find in the wild - branches, berries, clover and an occasional apple.
While the original Smokey spent the rest of its life at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., this cub will be returned to the woods once it recovers. And unlike Smokey, this cub will not be named.
Elsewhere in California, nine helicopters and 13 tanker planes dropped water and retardant on the 1,500-acre Creek Fire, which was burning within a mile of two subdivisions.
"They're really bombarding the open area where there's no line," said Mary Hale, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. She estimated the cost of fighting the blaze at $4.5 million.
Across the West, firefighters finally seemed to be gaining control over most of the wildfires. But in Idaho, two of the worst fires grew to 51,000 acres. Firefighters there decided to protect lives and private property but let wild areas burn.