Orphaned Yosemite Park bears find new home

Yosemite Nat’l Park (KCRA) — Three orphaned bear cubs have a new lease on life after their mother was killed in Yosemite National Park on the Fourth of July.

In most cases, the 5-month-old cubs would be goners, but park staff were able to catch them and move them to a new home at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. The hope is the cubs will eventually be reintroduced into the wild next year.

The cubs are still very small, weighing between 8 and 10 pounds, but they are otherwise healthy.

They don’t have names, and human contact is kept at a minimum.

“They’re exactly like toddlers,” said Tom Millham, who helps care for the bears. “They’ll sleep a lot, night and day, and they’ll get up and they’ll play, they’ll eat, and whenever you eat and you have a full belly, it’s time to take a nap.”