Missing bear cub located near Ely

ELY, Minn. – Sue Mansfield started crying as soon as she saw the cub’s face.

Even with the cub 30 feet up a cedar tree, the Ely bear researcher knew it was Hope because of its light face.

The cub went missing Friday evening, and researchers held out little hope the cub was still alive until friends of Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers called about 6 p.m. Wednesday to say they had a bear cub treed. The cub came down and was captured less than two hours later.

The cub was separated from its mother, Lily, during a heavy rainstorm.

Now that the cub is back in safe hands, Rogers said it’s unknown whether Lily will accept it back. Because they’ve been apart for five days, Lily’s hormones may have turned to the new mating season and away from taking care of her cub.

Because Lily is fitted with a GPS collar that gives her location every 10 minutes, Rogers and Mansfield hoped to find her Wednesday night and reintroduce Hope to Lily to see the sow’s reaction.

Hope was born on Jan. 22 and left the den with Lily in late March after being watched for weeks by millions of people on the live webcam placed in their den. It’s believed to be a first for a wild black bear birth in a den.

Mansfield has continued to video the sow and cub since then, and she and Rogers often meet up with and spend time with the bears in the woods.

The videos and reports can be seen at http://www.bear.org/website/.

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