Cleveland Zoo, New Home to Orphaned Bear Cubs

This summer has been marked by a handful of grizzly bear incidents and the actions of one mother bear now leaves her two bear cubs orphaned and headed to the Cleveland Zoo. A female grizzly bear who had been getting into bird feeders, livestock feed and even damaged an outbuilding in the Shoshone River valley in northern Wyoming had to be euthanized, leaving the fate of her two bear cubs to zoo keepers in Cleveland.

An air conditioned van loaded with the two bear cubs left the state Wednesday and are due to arrive in Cleveland late this evening. The mother grizzly was euthanized this month because of it's continued misbehavior around the Shoshone River valley. The grizzly had been causing problems and raised safety concerns since 2006. Female grizzly bears that cause problems and are captured three times or more can be euthanized after consultations with federal wildlife officials.

The two Wyoming bear cubs will now call the Cleveland Zoo home and will join two other bear cubs that were orphaned in Montana. The Montana cubs were orphaned after a hunter shot the mother bear in a wilderness area near Helena, MT. Those two cubs made their debut at the Cleveland Zoo last month.