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At the San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center,the team isn’t just raising a black bear cub — they’re doing it in bear suits. “We do our best to look like bears,smell like bears,and sound like bears,” said Autumn Welch,Wildlife Operations Manager at the center.
The cub,approximately two months old when he arrived,was found crying and alone by campers on a trail in Los Padres National Forest. Despite efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to reunite him with his mother,including an overnight watch and the use of trail cameras,no sign of her ever surfaced.
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The cub,weighing just three pounds and “a little thin,a little emaciated,” was transferred to the Ramona Wildlife Center for rehabilitation. It’s unclear what happened to his mother,but “he probably went several days without nutrition or even hydration for that matter,” said Welch.
This case is rare. Only four bear cubs this young have come into care in California in the past five years. “Usually when we get bear cubs,they're a little bit older,” Welch explained. The Ramona center is one of only four facilities in the state permitted to rehabilitate black bears,and the only one in San Diego County licensed to care for apex predators like bears,mountain lions,and bobcats.
From the beginning,the cub needed constant attention and a carefully structured environment that mimicked maternal behaviors. That’s where the bear suits came in. Drawing on best practices,the team cobbled together a costume using donated fur coats and realistic bear masks ordered off Amazon. “We've gone through several bear masks,” Welch said with a laugh. “In the beginning he was so little and really just trying to figure out what had happened,where he was,who we were,and so we really wanted him to see us as other bears.”
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The team’s commitment extended beyond wardrobe. They introduced a large stuffed teddy bear into the cub’s enclosure,and he immediately bonded with it. “She's almost like his mother,” Welch said. “When he gets nervous or hears a loud noise… he goes to the big teddy bear.”
These extra steps aren't just adorable,they're essential. “When he was first with us and we wanted him to learn how to explore his environment,we would take a small stuffed animal and use it kind of like a little sibling and move it around and look in the dirt,” Welch explained. “He'd come over out of curiosity,‘Oh,what are you looking at?’”
And it’s not just bears. “"We do the same even with our little skunks. We give them stuffed animal skunks. The raccoons get stuffed animal raccoons and it works really well,” Welch said.
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The cub now sees the humans (in their fur-covered disguises) as his siblings or playmates. "He's fascinated with all the smells,the flowers,the insects,everything we can bring him that his mom would be showing him and teaching him how to do,and we're looking for these various milestones as he's growing,"Welch said proudly,adding "He's up to about 12 pounds now,so he's quadrupled in size."
Despite the lighthearted visuals of grown adults in costume alongside a bear cub,the work is serious and resource-intensive. “It's all based on support and donations,so we really do appreciate being able to tell his story” Welch said. “Without wildlife rehabilitation centers,most likely these babies would not survive.”
When the time is right and the cub has developed all the necessary skills to live on his own,the plan is to return him to the wild. “Our job is to slowly phase ourselves out,teach him that independence,” explains Welch. “We want to be able to see them go back to the wild and thrive and be able to coexist peacefully with humans.”
Until then,the masked caregivers of Ramona Wildlife Center will continue their unusual and heartwarming mission,one costume at a time.
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