HARRISBURG – A Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer and Dushore Fire Department officials made a dramatic rescue of a black bear cub that was stuck in a tree near LaPorte, Sullivan County.
On May 11, Lew and Scott Hope, a father-son team with the Dushore Fire Department, responded to the call about a bear cub stuck about 50-feet high in a tree in Lost Lake Acres, a developed community one-mile north of LaPorte. The cub, weighing only about six or seven pounds, had its left front leg firmly wedged between two large branches and could not free itself. The sow bear made several attempts to dislodge the cub without success and lingered in the area with three other cubs while the rescue crew set up a ladder truck to access the young cub.
William M. Williams, Game Commission WCO for Sullivan County, ascended the ladder and assessed the situation.
“I held the cub by the scruff of the neck and tried to free its leg, but it wouldn’t budge,” Williams said. “Scott Hope climbed the ladder and used a pry-bar to separate the two branches while I lifted the bear free of the branches and ended a nearly five-hour ordeal.”
Williams said that the cub was gently lowered to the ground and carried to an area where the sow was waiting in a small pine tree. The young bear hit the ground running and immediately joined the adult and it’s siblings.
“This bear would never have been able to escape this predicament without human intervention,” Williams said. “The Dushore Fire Department saved the day for this bear.”