Newborn black bear cubs taken to Kilham Bear Center after den is destroyed - The Union Leader

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Contractor with bear

General contractor Phil Marrotte took a selfie with a baby bear his crew found in a disturbed bear den Monday afternoon while installing a septic system in a Peterborough yard.
Bear nap

Fitz, one of the three Peterborough black bear cubs, naps at his new home at the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme.

PETERBOROUGH - Three baby black bears were left behind Monday when a contractor working in a local yard disturbed their den and their mother ran off.

The project's contractor, Phil Marrotte, said he was at another job in town when he was called to the scene.

Marrotte said the den was not very deep and was just under a brush pile near the house on the property. His crew was cutting trees to make way for a new septic system when some trees fell on the brush pile damaging the den.

Fish and Game Conservation Officer Shawn MacFadzen arrived on the scene between 10 and 11 a.m. MacFadzen said being the officer on scene, it was up to him to make the decision if the bear cubs should stay or go.

"Unfortunately it was in the middle of a construction site. It was right up next to the house, and them being exposed, there was no other option. They would have frozen to death if we didn't remove them," he said.

The decision was made to take the cubs to the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme, where they will be raised.

When MacFadzen went to his truck for a box to house the cubs, Marrotte said he pulled the cubs out of what was left of the den and wrapped them in a blanket.

Marrotte, an avid hunter who loves wildlife, said, "I never thought I'd have the chance to do something like that. It was really a once in a lifetime chance."

And while he is sad that the cubs were not reunited with their mother, Marrotte said, they are in good hands at the Kilham Bear Center.

Since 1993 the center has rehabilitated 250 New Hampshire black bears and another 50 from Massachusetts and Vermont.

"It's not common nor is it uncommon to get calls during the winter of bears getting disturbed out of the den," Fish and Game bear expert Andrew Timmons said Tuesday, "and the only time it is really an issue is when cubs are involved." An adult bear can easily find a new den, he said.

"When a mama bear is scared out of her den by a disturbance she is usually going to return," he said.

Typically, dens are disturbed during winter logging jobs. When that happens, Fish and Game works with the landowner or logger by asking them to avoid the area around the den so that the mother bear can return.

In this case, there was no den to return to. The sow would have had to successfully re-den the cubs in a short amount of time.

"We had a pending storm with predicted rain and snow and those are all things that go into play when you are trying to decide what to do," Timmons said.

It would have been a gamble to leave the cubs, and the odds weren't on their side, he said. "You couldn't just leave them and wait and see, because even on a warmer day those cubs could die of exposure."

Timmons said he is sure the mother bear returned for her cubs after dark and after not finding them would have left and made herself a new den. She will likely have cubs again next winter, he said.

Cubs typically stay with their mother for two winters until they are about 18 months. And that is also how long they will stay at the Kilham Bear Center, he said.

Ben Kilham, who founded the nonprofit black bear rehabilitation center in Lyme nearly 30 years ago, said the newborn cubs are in good health.

"They are two females and a male. The male is about 2 pounds, 5 ounces and the females are about 3 pounds, 5 ounces. They are probably five weeks old. That's an estimate," Kilham said. "They are eating well; we're not having any difficulty on that level."

Although the newborn cubs were found in Peterborough, initial reports said the den was located in Fitzwilliam, so Kilham named them, Fitz, Willa and Billie.

You can learn more about the center at kilhambearcenter.org. You can also follow the progress of the cubs on the center's Instagram page: The Kilham Bear Center.

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