Bear Naked Truth

Olive as a young bear in a fight for her life received intensive veterinary care from CDFW wildlife veterinarians to alleviate a skin condition that left her mostly hairless and unable to return to the wild. CDFW photo.

It was something of a soft launch in the spring of 2021 when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) placed a young, orphaned, female black bear with a skin condition with the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary in Sacramento County.

The zoo had lost its popular 25-year-old black bear, “Marty,” to old age and had space to accept another bear. Currently, the zoo also has another black bear resident, “Henry,” a massive, 647-pound male that also arrived from CDFW as an orphan in 2003.

The small female bear with a chronic and unsightly skin condition that caused her to lose most of her fur was quietly welcomed into the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary without fanfare or public notice.

Not all wild bears, even young ones, transition well to life in captivity. Those arriving with chronic medical conditions can be especially problematic, requiring a disproportionate amount of veterinary attention and resources for zoos and other animal sanctuaries. As these entities typically operate as nonprofits, they are often dependent on outside fundraising to meet expenses and tend to be on very tight budgets.

The prognosis for the “hairless bear” was not optimistic when CDFW recovered the sick yearling from the west shore of Lake Tahoe in April of 2021. The bear was in very poor shape. Bears with such extensive medical problems often have underlying issues and almost never recover to the point where they can make it on their own in the wild, even with medical intervention.

After delivery to CDFW’s Wildlife Health Lab (WHL) in Rancho Cordova, wildlife veterinarians went to work right away. A full veterinary exam, blood work, X-rays and skin tests were completed. The bear had very thickened skin with crusts all over. Tests confirmed CDFW’s initial suspicions of a severe, chronic skin infection known as a Trychophyton fungal infection. Based on WHL’s previous experience with similar cases and consultations with veterinary specialists, a battery of intensive treatments commenced, including weekly clinical baths, a suite of antimicrobial drugs, a carefully constructed diet and heaters to help the hairless bear maintain body temperature during the cold nights.

WHL’s experience with similar bears has been that because of the long-term treatments required, the bears can become “habituated,” which means they lose their natural fear of humans and can associate humans with food. Physically, there’s also the potential for irreversible damage to the bear’s hair follicles as a result of the skin condition. In either case, it means these bears cannot be released back to the wild.

CDFW explored placement options for the bear pending successful treatment of the skin infection and found a willing taker in the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary.

The bear was transferred on May 25, 2021, weighing just 80 pounds. She was quarantined within the zoo’s bear exhibit for another six months – kept out of the public display and separated from the massive Henry until she became more comfortable with zookeepers and the routine at the zoo.

“She went out on exhibit in mid-November 2021 after she was more comfortable with groups of people,” said Jocelyn Smeltzer, manager of the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary. “We let her take her time and show us when she was ready to go out on exhibit. I’m glad we gave her the time she needed to settle in because she has been doing very well on exhibit ever since.”

So well, in fact, that the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary felt confident and comfortable to publicly announce on its website and related social medial channels the bear’s official introduction this past New Year’s Day.

Today, the 2-year-old female bear, which the zoo has named “Olive,” weighs a healthy 195 pounds and is still growing. She lives adjacent to – but still physically separated – from Henry. There are no immediate plans to unite the two for safety reasons given their size differences but sharing an exhibit with Henry or future zoo bears remains a possibility if the bears can demonstrate they will get along.

Olive’s fur has grown back to varying degrees. And while her coat may never be as full and thick as her counterparts in the wild, nobody is likely to call Olive the “hairless bear” again.

“The Folsom Zoo has been a wonderful partner over the years, providing a great home for a number of bears such as Olive that are not able to return to the wild,” said Deana Clifford, CDFW’s senior wildlife veterinarian. “As wildlife veterinarians, our top priority always is to return the animals in our care back to the wild. When that’s not possible due to medical reasons or other issues, we work to find the best possible placement options where these animals can live out their lives with the care and attention they deserve and the ongoing veterinary support they often need.”

Olive makes her public debut at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary in 2021. Photo courtesy of the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary.

Olive lives in a rich enclosure with natural features such as tree limbs to climb. Photo courtesy of the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary.

Earlier this year, the young female black bear revels in her newfound freedom upon release into the wild following months of care and rehabilitation in captivity after being struck by a vehicle in the Lake Tahoe Basin. CDFW photo.

While they can thrill tourists and residents alike with their mere presence, antics and brazen behavior, life is no vacation for the Tahoe Basin’s black bears. They often face many more serious threats to their survival and well-being – traffic, disease, a garbage-filled diet, human conflicts and now wildfire – than many of their wildland counterparts.

That point was driven home recently when veterinarians at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) had to euthanize a year-and-a-half old female bear – one of the “South Shore Four” – released this spring back into the wild after seven months of rehabilitation at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC). The bear arrived at LTWC in September 2020 as a 50-lb. cub suffering a broken leg after being hit by a car on Emerald Bay Road near Eloise Avenue.

Rehabbed alongside three local orphaned bear cubs – two males and one female – the young females were released together last April about 70 miles from South Lake Tahoe.

The one female with the healed hind leg was of particular concern to biologists. The cub’s mother was a known problem bear – raiding garbage cans, breaking into garages and cars – and was thought to be teaching these same behaviors to the cub before the cub was struck by a car and taken to LTWC for rehabilitation.

Outfitted with a GPS tracking collar and a No. 83 blue plastic tag in her left ear, the female bear, weighing some 150-lbs. at that point, headed almost immediately back to South Lake Tahoe, the bear’s collar sending signals from the Freel Peak area. Campers later spotted the bear in the Zephyr Cove area and South Lake Tahoe residents reported seeing the bear in the exact backyard where it was believed to have been born. The bear showed little fear of either cars or people.

Then, on May 24, the bear was found unresponsive, sprawled out on its side at the base of a tree in a residential backyard along Freel Peak Ave., leading to initial speculation that the bear had been struck once again by a vehicle. An emergency visit to a local animal hospital, however, showed no sign of trauma. The bear was returned to LTWC for care and observation.

Although the bear improved after a week, LTWC staff agreed that the bear never recovered fully. Mentally, it seemed like a different bear altogether than the one staff had cared for prior to its April release – mentally dull and lethargic.

In June, the bear was moved yet again – this time to CDFW’s Wildlife Health Lab near Sacramento for further observation and examination by CDFW veterinarians.

Given the mental dullness and its lack of fear around people, biologists and veterinarians suspected encephalitis – or inflammation of the brain – as the root cause of the bear’s problems. The neurological disorder has turned up increasingly in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s black bear population. A cause for this disorder has yet to be identified and currently there are no treatments.

At CDFW’s facilities, the female bear remained unsteady on its feet with an abnormal gait and mental dullness. Showing no signs of physical or mental improvement, the decision was made to euthanize her due to the grave prognosis for a return to normal function and release back to the wild.

A post-mortem examination to determine a cause of the physical and mental abnormalities was inconclusive. The examination showed no evidence of encephalitis or recent physical trauma but did find “degenerative changes in the brainstem.” Additionally, trace amounts of bromethalin were detected, revealing exposure to this neurotoxic rodenticide.

Still, relatively little is known about the potential effects of bromethalin in wildlife, and veterinarians were unable to determine whether it could have caused the degenerative changes in the brain or the physical and mental changes observed when the bear was alive.

CDFW biologists continue to monitor the three remaining “South Shore Four” bears in the wild. These bears are now confronting the latest threats to their survival and well-being – namely, the Caldor and Tamarack fires.

A young black bear displaying neurological abnormalities, including a prominent head tilt, undergoes a CT scan at UC Davis in 2019. The bear became something of a social media sensation for approaching people at the Northstar ski resort before being treated by CDFW and placed with a wildife facility in San Diego, where the bear has required ongoing veterinary care. CDFW photo by Kirsten Macintyre.

The reports out of Pollock Pines, El Dorado County, last month sounded eerily familiar.

A small, black bear showed up at a utility worksite. It was alone and possibly sick – lethargic and showing little fear of people. The bear was largely unfazed by attempts to shoo it away by yelling and clapping.

Subsequent calls to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) reported the bear had moved into a residential backyard, once again acting lethargic – certainly underweight, perhaps dehydrated – and showing no fear of people. Contrary to CDFW guidance, residents began feeding the seemingly friendly little bear, admitting they had become attached to it. They supplied it with water, apples and strawberries. At one point, the bear jumped into a housekeeper’s open car trunk, prompting attempts to approach it and pet it.

When a CDFW wildlife biologist and warden went to investigate, they encountered a situation becoming more common in the Tahoe Basin and elsewhere around the state. They found a bear too young to be out on its own, “dog-like” in its behavior, completely comfortable around people, picking up an apple to eat in front of them on the backyard patio. Physically and mentally, the bear just didn’t seem quite right, walking oddly, dull and not responsive like a normal bear should be.

The bear was taken to CDFW’s Wildlife Investigations Laboratory (WIL) in Rancho Cordova for observation and evaluation by veterinarians. Covered in ticks, the yearling female was undersized and underweight for its age at a mere 21 pounds. A similarly aged bear should weigh closer to 80 pounds. Under observation in captivity, the bear displayed intermittent head tremors and a subtle head tilt, troubling signs of neurological abnormalities.

A week of observation and testing confirmed neurologic and behavioral deficits and the bear was euthanized. A post-mortem examination is underway. Preliminary findings have confirmed encephalitis or inflammation of the brain, which would make it the third bear with neurological disorders due to encephalitis to pass through CDFW’s WIL within the past 12 months. A fourth bear showing signs of neurological abnormalities, this one from Humboldt County, has since been euthanized and encephalitis confirmed in that case as well.

“Any time a wild animal comes into our care, the best-possible outcome is a release back to the wild,” explained CDFW wildlife veterinarian Brandon Munk. “That’s just not possible for these neurologically impaired bears. At this point, we don’t know what causes the encephalitis so we don’t know what, if any, health risks these bears might pose to other animals.

“The second-best outcome would be a long, healthy life at a reputable zoo or wildlife sanctuary, but any inflammation of the brain is going to be significant for the individual bear and may have long-term consequences,” Dr. Munk said. “The few bears like this we have placed do not seem to fully recover, some requiring significant medical management for the life of the bear, which is a huge burden for these facilities that often operate on tight budgets. So neither release back to the wild nor placement in a facility is a good option for these bears.”

The Nevada Department of Wildlife was the first to raise a red flag, alerting wildlife colleagues in California in 2014 to growing encounters in the Tahoe Basin with young black bears with neurological abnormalities. Veterinarians and biologists from the two state wildlife agencies met virtually again this month to share updates on the situation.

The neurologically impaired Pollock Pines black bear eats an apple in a residential backyard as a CDFW wildlife officer and wildlife biologist observe its behavior before taking it to CDFW's Wildlife Investigations Laboratory for testing and observation. CDFW photo by Shelly Blair.

Necropsies on the afflicted bears have confirmed encephalitis but the root cause of the disease remains a mystery. During their investigations into the cause, scientists have discovered five novel viruses – previously unknown and unidentified – though their relationship to the condition and the neurological disorders remain unknown.

Complicating matters for wildlife officials, the neurologically dull bears appear friendly to the public. Not fearing people, they may come into contact – and conflict – with humans more often.

One such bear with a prominent head tilt became a social media sensation in 2019 when it approached a snowboarder at the Northstar ski resort, stepping onto the snowboard at one point and curiously sniffing a pant leg as the amused snowboarder filmed the interaction for Instagram.

That bear is now three years old. Named Benji, it lives at the San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Campus. CDFW received and treated another young bear for neurological abnormalities and placed it with the Orange County Zoo in 2014. These bears serve as something of a cautionary tale as neither fully recovered and both have required significant veterinary care, resources and treatment over time – expenses that are difficult for many wildlife facilities to absorb and limit the placement options for similarly afflicted bears in the future.