PlusWildlife Group Releases Orphaned Black BearsWildlife Group Releases Orphaned Black BearsThe Associated PressAfter spending the past year in a New Jersey refuge, two orphan black bear cubs have been returned to the wild. The baby black bears were left alone last year after the parents were shot for coming too close to people. (May 29)[Notes:ANCHOR VOICE] ((New Jersey))((Thursday)) It's back into the wild for a bunch of orphaned bears. The baby black bears were left alone last year after wildlife officials were forced to shoot the parents for coming too close to people. ((June, 2007)) Here are the cubs a year ago. That's when the group "Woodlands Wildlife" adopted them. ((Thursday)) ((Tracy Leaver, Woodlands Wildlife)) "If you truly respect the wild spirit of these bears you will just leave them alone and enjoying seeing them without providing food or anything else that will cause them to come close to people, they don't need anybody's help." To release the bears, wildlife officials first tranquilize them, using a gun that fires a dart filled with Ketamine. The bears are weighed...NATS: 160 pounds!....blood samples are taken "they take tissue sample for a DNA library" ...their ears are tagged....and NATS: snap....volunteers even pose for photos with the sedated bears! They're cute, cute FLASH dissolve SOT ((Victoria Tunnermann)) "I think we're encroaching on a lot of the animals' territory, and I think there should be efforts taken to remove them, especially with babies so they can stay together." These bears will grow to be around 500 pounds, but they are ready to go back into the wild now. The still sedated bears are loaded into a cage on a truck. Then they are driven deep into the New Jersey woods. Here they are let go, but it's not so easy. The bears are still woozy from the tranquilizers, but they wander off into their new lives in the woods, where they will feast on plants, mate with other bears, and hopefully have very little contact with people. Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, In the woods of New Jersey
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