A baby bear was struggling to stay afloat while swimming in a B.C. lake earlier this month when a local family came to its rescue. They call him Boo-Boo—named after Yogi Bear’s diminutive sidekick—according to Christine Zamniuk, whose family was out boating on Okanan Lake on Sept. 12 at around 1 p.m. when they saw what looked like a dog struggling to keep its head above water. “We got closer and noticed it was a little baby bear. It was struggling,” she told CTV News. “It was blowing little bubbles with its nose, its little back legs were just sort of hanging there, and he was barely paddling.” “We thought, ‘Let’s get him on the boat and get him out of the water because he’s gonna drown.’” Zamniuk said her son-in-law stepped up, made a small noose with rope, and used it to pull Boo-Boo toward the boat. As she explained, the bear cub was terrified. “He was cold, and he was wet, and shaking uncontrollably,” she said. “We just turned the engine off, and we just let it dry out, and he stopped shaking.” “We fed him some Cheetos because that’s all we had in the boat for him to eat … he had like two piles of them. He loved them.” Zamniuk said they called a number of wildlife societies while Boo-Boo was on the boat and didn’t get a response in time, but the B.C. Conservation Officer Service did respond and directed the family to get the bear off the boat and onto shore as fast as possible. “We kept explaining to them that he is little; he is like 30 pounds, he almost drowned, there’s no mom around, and he has little tiny teeth—we told them everything, and they just said to drop him off,” Zamniuk said. She said she didn’t agree with the idea, but obliged anyway. The family cruised to an area near the shore and tried to get the cub off the boat, but Boo-Boo didn’t want to leave his Cheeto-bearing rescuers. “We tried to push him off, and he wouldn’t go. We had to give him a really good shove,” she said. “He was feisty. He was hanging on with his little claws, and he wasn’t going anywhere.” “He wanted to stay with us.” Where is Boo-Boo now? Zamniuk said the little bear swam a few feet to shore and was no longer in her family’s care—but she hasn’t stopped caring. She told CTV News she heard he was found under someone’s porch in the area, that someone else saw Boo-Boo scurrying through a nearby forest, and that others saw him in the neighbourhood. On Monday, Zamniuk said she reached out to Northern Lights Wildlife Rescue, and they’re actively searching for the bear. “When they find him, and they’re really hoping they do, they’re going to take him back to Smithers to the wildlife rescue, and they’re going to keep him over the winter and release him back into the wild next spring,” she explained. If the cub is found, Zamniuk said she’ll immediately drive to Smithers and ensure he’s safe and appropriately named Boo-Boo. “What are the chances of ever seeing a bear that small in the middle of a lake?” she said. “It was just incredible.”
