Photo: Idaho Black Bear Rehab
Cinder became a national figure in July 2014. According to theAssociated Press, the bear, then just a cub, got caught in the devastating Carlton Complex Fire, which torched 400 miles of Methow Valley. Little Cinder was found hiding under a horse trailer with third-degree burns on her paws, which caused the cub to walk on her elbows.
From here, Cinder was flown toLake Tahoe Wildlife Carein California to have her burns treated, though her chances of a full recovery seemed slim, reportsCBS News.
“It was the worst burns I’ve ever seen,” Cinder’s veterinarian, Randy Hein, toldCBS This Morningin 2015. “My gut feeling was that the bear would live, but I didn’t know if she’d ever be able to be released into the wild because of how badly damaged and burned her paws were.”
But Cinder was a fighter, overcoming the odds and regaining the strength to make an attempt at rehabilitation and release possible. The wild animal’s spirit earned her national attention and inspired an interactive children’s e-book calledCinder the Bear.
From California, Cinder traveled toIdaho Black Bear Rehabilitation, where specialists retaught the growing cub how to be a bear. She was released back into the wild with another rehabbed cub named Kaulana in June 2015. Both of the bears were outfitted with GPS tracking collars so the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials could check in.
The last recorded sighting of Cinder alive and well was in February 2017, when officials visited the bear in her den in the Cascades to switch out her tracking collar with a new one, reports KOMO News.
This new collar stopped transmitting in October of 2017. Officials hoped this meant that Cinder was hibernating, but it appears something more sinister had happened. A team went to look for Cinder in September of this year, and that is when the animal’s remains were found.
Rich Beausoleil of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told CBS News that he believes a hunter shot and killed the bear and then cut off Cinder’s tracking collar, rendering it inoperable.
Beausoleil added that the loss of the beloved bear is especially hard for the local community, who looked to Cinder for the strength to rebuild after the Carlton Complex Fire.
“l always remember someone saying, ‘If Cinder can do it, then we can do it.’ That inspired me too,” Beausoliel told CBS News.
source: people.com
