Cooperative Living Northern Virginia Electric • June 2020 • BEAR CUB BAILOUT

Skyler Merchant, an apprentice lineworker at BARC Electric, teamed with staking assistant Travis Rhodenizer to help rescue three small bear cubs after a vehicle struck and killed their mother on Interstate 64 near Lexington, Va.

“For it being on Easter and everything else we’re dealing with now in this crazy time, it was very, very cool to get the call,” Merchant tells the electric.coop news site.

The humane deed produced an outpouring of congratulations for the volunteer rescuers and well wishes for the 3-month-old cubs, who are recovering at the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro.

According to police reports, a truck hit and killed a black bear sow, estimated to be 6 or 7 years old, at about 9 p.m. on April 11. The trucker called the Virginia State Police and watched as three cubs following their mother raced away and climbed about 50 feet up a tree on a nearby property.

State Troopers Nathan Combs and J.A. Paxton responded to the scene as other area residents helped them keep a vigil on the cubs, who were treebound for about 12 hours.

“They were contacted by the property owner, who knew they worked for BARC, and asked if they could possibly bring a bucket truck to help rescue the cubs,” says Tish Blackwell, communications specialist at BARC.

“Skyler contacted Jamie Lowry, our COO, for permission and he agreed to lend the help without hesitation. The two went to the site with the truck and successfully helped get the cubs out of the tree to safety,” she says.

While the mission didn’t involve their normal course of line duty, Merchant and Rhodenizer encountered their share of challenges. Mud and soft ground ensnared the truck as they moved it down an embankment toward the tree. Jimmy Southers Auto Towing and Repairs was able to extricate them to the edge of the interstate.

That enabled Merchant to elevate the bucket arm, reach out and pluck the cubs from their perch.

“I figured grabbing the back of the neck like its mom would do might give me an advantage,” he says.

Adds Rhodenizer, “They were a little frightened, a little shaky, but we were actually able to pretty easily remove them from the tree.”

They handed the cub-filled basket to state wildlife biologist Jaime Sajecki, who took the young ones to the Waynesboro center, which treats injured birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

In addition to the local news, BARC and the other volunteers got a lot of national attention, with Operation Easter Rescue picked up by People magazine online and newspapers as far away as Sacramento, Calif. BARC’s Facebook post about the deeds of Merchant and Rhodenizer got more than 100 likes.

The three female cubs, all between 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 pounds, were in good health when they arrived at the center, which hopes to return them to the wild in spring 2021. They’ll be in a group with five other cubs.

In the meantime, you can check on their progress on Critter Cam 3 under Critter Corner at wildlifecenter.org.