LEBANON — Local officials Wednesday morning trapped and rescued a male cub they believe to be the third member of a recent litter from Mink, the beloved and well-traveled black bear who died in August.
“I’m ecstatic,” Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos said shortly after finding the cub in the trap around 7 a.m., ending a seven-week search in the woods of Lebanon and Hanover.
He recounted making eye contact with the cub on Tuesday as he went to reset the trap near woods behind the Tractor Supply store off Route 4, following several reported of sightings of a bear cub. The next day, there he was.
“He was sitting in the trap, and bam, we got him,” said Christopoulos, who used two jelly doughnuts and two maple-frosted doughnuts from Dunkin’ as bait this time.
“I was trying to find sweet and stinky,” he said of the bait.
Hanover Deputy Fire Chief Michael Hinsley rushed to the scene and also confirmed that the facial markings of the cub, who appeared to weigh less than 30 pounds, conform with what was known of Mink’s three cubs.
Mink’s body was found on a gravel bar along the Mascoma River, about a quarter-mile from the Tractor Supply store, on Aug. 25. Wildlife officials said she had been dead for several days, and a search using game cameras and help from the public was launched for her three male cubs, who were born in late January. Mink had gained national attention after training several of her litters to search for food in the residential neighborhoods of Hanover, prompting both a plan to destroy her, which was overruled by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, and ultimate exile to northern New Hampshire.
But she eventually returned to Hanover and Lebanon — wildlife officials had put a tracking collar on the bear — and continued to fascinate and enchant Upper Valley residents until her death.
One cub, nicknamed “Chief” after Christopoulos, was captured off Route 10 near the Wilder Dam on Aug. 31 after the fire chief used a package of store-bought apple-cider donuts as bait, but the second cub was killed in mid-September when it was hit by a bus as it ran across Route 10 in West Lebanon, near the Hanover town line.
Hinsley has nicknamed the third cub “Lori” in honor of Christopoulos’ wife, who had also played a key role in searching for the cubs.
Christopoulos started focusing on the Tractor Supply site on Saturday after store officials said a bear cub was feasting on bird seed and dog food that had been thrown over the bank after their bags had been damaged.
He caught a raccoon initially, then spotted the cub on Tuesday as he went to reset the trap.
“He was sitting on the hill. He looked at me and bolted down the hill,” Christopoulos said.
Lori the bear was “snappy” in his cage after first being recovered, but Hinsley said the cub began to calm down as he warmed up while Hinsley drove him north in his Hanover Fire Department SUV to bear expert Ben Kilham’s reserve in Lyme.
“It’s been cold and rainy,” Hinsley noted.
Kilham said it’s “likely” that Lori is one of Mink’s cubs given his similarities to the other cubs and where he was caught, and said another indicator would be how Lori interacts with Chief when they are reunited.
Kilham said he wanted to give Lori a chance to “settle down” for several hours after his capture but noted that Chief had smelled Lori’s scent and wandered near the cage carrying the cub when he was brought to Lyme on Wednesday morning.
Kilham said he and his sister Phoebe have about 35 bear cubs spending the winter at their center, many of them orphaned and rescued throughout the state.
“They keep coming in. We got one from Littleton two days ago,” he said. “The northern part of the state didn’t have much of a mast crop, so the females are traveling to find food and are getting hit by automobiles.”
Both Hinsley and Christopoulos said they wanted to thank members of the public for their help in locating Mink’s cubs.
“If anyone needs to get thanked it’s the people in West Lebanon and Hanover who have kept their eyes open and have been reporting sightings of the bear cubs and showed concern,” said Hinsley, who had tracked Mink closely for several years and had been monitoring game cameras in Hanover for the cubs.
(About three weeks ago he checked a trap that had been triggered only to find a skunk in a “doughnut coma.” He left the door open with a zip tie for the skunk to wander free when it recovered.)
“I feel a sense of relief and completion,” Hinsley said Wednesday of Lori’s rescue. “Bears have been a nice mental diversion from COVID.”
John P. Gregg can be reached at 603-727-3217 or jgregg@vnews.com.