SOUTH OF OLYMPIC NATIONAL FOREST — Reacting to the auditory assault of clanging metal, barking dogs, shouts and rifle blasts, a 168-pound American black bear shot out of the open end of a culvert trap and hightailed it into the woods off a logging road in Grays Harbor County.
His sister, weighing in at 135 pounds, took a little more time to overcome her fear and confusion before she, too, ran for the trees and away from the humans who each had driven more than 100 miles to witness the bears’ return to the wild.
“I’m just glad they came out of the trap and are safe,” said Dustin Prater, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) police officer who, with his Karelian bear dog, Spencer, has attended well over 20 bear releases in the last nine years. “Hopefully they’ll stay away from humans and have a long life.”
The cubs, now yearlings, were the 106th and 107th orphaned or injured bears to be raised or treated at the PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynnwood, then released months later in the same general area where they were originally found. Fitted with GPS collars and tattooed with identification numbers on their gums, the bears are also among the latest subjects of a long-term research study being conducted by Rich Beausoleil and Lindsay Welfelt, both WDFW biologists and the agency’s bear and cougar specialists.