Finding a box of puppies on your lawn, OK. But learning they're really bear cubs? That's what a North Carolina man experienced last month after seeing the box and calling deputies to his Camden County home. "It's not uncommon to find black bears in the county," Camden County Sheriff Kevin Jones tells CNN. "But to find bear cubs in a cardboard box in your property, wrapped up in sweatshirts to keep them warm, yea, that's pretty strange." USA Today reports that the sheriff's office contacted state wildlife officials, who came and took the cubs to a local wildlife biologist. The little creatures are no more than three weeks old.
"Bear cubs of this age are extremely vulnerable, and survivability is not yet certain," says a spokewoman for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. "As with all cubs that are entered in the black bear rehabilitation program, all effort is underway to rehabilitate and return these cubs to the wild at the appropriate time." The News & Observer notes that Camden County, in northeastern North Carolina, is near a coast inhabited by bears; they love the unsettled swampland. As for the guy who found them, he might be the luckiest of all. "Bears are very protective of their cubs," says Jones. "If she had tracked those cubs by their scent to his residence, and he was out there, it could have ended up differently." (More bears stories.)
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