SULLIVAN COUNTY - Four months after he was
found lying by a stream near Bristol, Appalachian Bear Rescue has
released a now-healthy Summitt Bear back into the wild in Sullivan
County.
ABR started caring for Summitt in March. The bear was underweight and
"severely anemic and dehydrated" when he arrived at the Townsend-based
bear rescue.
Staff at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine
performed the school's first-ever black bear blood transfusion on
Summitt, using blood from one of Zoo Knoxville's black bears named Finn.
It was only the second black bear blood transfusion to be performed in
the United States, according to ABR.
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Appalachian Bear Rescue is caring for
its first new bear of the year after welcoming a 14-month-old male bear
to its facility on Monday.
The bear was found on a farm near Bristol. ABR said they were alerted by
TWRA officers that they were going to pick up a bear who had been
observed lurking near a barn for 48 hours and seemed thin and lethargic,
and was not behaving normally.
The TWRA officers found the bear lying down near a stream, and he was
oblivious to their presence. The officers took the small bear to the
University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, where ABR staff
met them to take possession of the bear.
ABR said the bear is a male yearling, about 14 months old, and weighs
only about 22 pounds. By comparison, a yearling coming out of
hibernation should weight between 35 and 50 pounds, according to ABR.
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