Mother bear guards bodies of electrocuted cubs from firefighters responding to brush fire

Two electrocuted bear cubs fell from a power pole in Banning and sparked a brush fire Tuesday before their dead bodies were dragged away by their mother, who sought to shield them from firefighters, authorities said.

The mother bear and her cubs had been wandering in a rural section of Banning near Bluff Street when the cubs climbed a power pole and touched a transformer around 1 a.m., according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan.

They were about 6 months old and weighed 20 pounds each.

When they were electrocuted, both cubs’ fur caught fire and they fell to the ground, igniting the brush and grass around them, Riverside County firefighters said. But when firefighters showed up to put out the flames, they first had to deal with the mama bear, Hughan said.

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“She was making noises you know, [like] ‘stay away from my babies,’ so firefighters just backed off [and] kept the fire from getting worse,” Hughan said.

The mother eventually dragged both cubs’ bodies a couple hundred yards deep into the brush where she’ll likely bury them, Hughan said. Officials decided the cubs’ bodies were far enough away that they don’t pose a public safety threat if they’re left there, he said.

The brush fire ignited by the bears grew to 1 1/2 acres before it was contained, authorities said.

A game warden speculated the mother bear may have seen a male bear in the area and urged her cubs to climb the pole to avoid the threat, Hughan said.

Hughan said he’s rarely, if ever, seen bears climb a power pole like the two that did Tuesday morning.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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