Sudbury man helps save bear that was hit by vehicle

A driver who found an injured bear on Highway 144 helped rescue it. The bear, now named Peter, was treated by Turtle Pond Wildlife Rescue and Bear With Us.

A Sudbury, Ont., man is sharing his story of how he managed to save a bear that was badly injured when it was hit by a car.

Almost two weeks ago, Peter Charbonneau was travelling to the community of Falconbridge when he noticed a bear was lying on the side of the road.

Charbonneau kept driving, but quickly decided to turn around and check on the bruin. He soon found out the bear had been hit by a car.

“I looked at him, and he was still breathing,” Charbonneau said.

“I didn’t know what to do at first. So, at that time, an elderly gentleman pulled up behind me.”

The man told him to get a gun and shoot the bear to put it out of its misery.

“I thought, no,” Charbonneau said.

He called 911, but then decided to also reach out to Turtle Pond, a licensed Wildlife Rehab Centre in Val Caron.

They told Charbonneau they could help.

Arrived and stabilized him

“We’re what’s considered a generalist, so we take in just about everything,” said Gloria Morissette, Turtle Pond founder.

Morissette and her team arrived on the scene and, with Charbonneau’s help, were able to get the bear — now named Peter — off the side of the road and back to the centre where he was stabilized.

They reached out to Bear With Us Centre for Bears, and Mike McIntosh, who is the founder of the Sprucedale, Ont., organization, came to get the bear a few days later.

“I drove the bear down to Caledon to a wonderful group of wildlife vets,” McIntosh said.

“At the National Wildlife Centre in Caledon, the vet team sedated the bear, X-rayed him many times to make sure there were no broken bones — and there were no broken bones. Then they proceeded to clean the forearm and then stitch him up.”

Continues to heal

Two-year-old Peter will continue to heal at Bear with Us until he is ready to go back into the wild next summer, when McIntosh will work with the MNR to find a release location.

As for why Peter wasn’t hibernating, Mcintosh says there are a few possibilities.

“We quite often get bears through the wintertime in need of care,” he said.

“It’s often cubs. … And most often the bear hunt … often kills the mothers. And those cubs come out of hibernation because they’re starving and underweight and can’t sleep.”

Bears will often move around during the hibernation period “if there’s not a lot of snow cover,” McIntosh said.

“And that’s been the case near Sudbury this year so far.”

Both Turtle Pond and Bear with Us are non-profit organizations that rely on donations to survive.

As for anyone who comes upon an injured animal, they are urged to call a local rehab centre to figure out what they should do.

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