“It was around 1 a.m. on June 20, and my wife and I heard this sound like, ‘Ma! Ma!’” recalled Steve Sickler, an expediting clerk at our service center in Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin.
Sickler followed the sound to a construction project at his Eagle River home. Inside the foundation for a new sun room, he found a stranded bear cub.
“I always knew we had bears in the area, but never saw one near our home until that night.”
The cub had fallen into the foundation and was frantically calling to its mother. Eager to avoid a confrontation with the adult bear, Sickler wisely stayed inside and called 911. The Vilas County Sheriff’s Department dispatched a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) warden to the site.
While waiting for the warden to arrive, Sickler and his wife watched the distraught mother bear pacing back and forth outside their home for over an hour. Meanwhile, the mom’s two other cubs were waiting in a nearby tree.
Sickler had a hunch the cub may climb up a ladder, if he could lower one into the foundation. When the DNR warden arrived, they agreed on the game plan. Within seconds of lowering the ladder, the cub climbed to the top.
“This was a million to one thing. I’ll never see anything like this again.”
The rescue, which was captured on video, has since gone viral. Sickler has seen it picked up by news sites in England, Australia, India, Iran and Israel. Here in the U.S., stations in Texas, Florida, California and many more have posted the video. And, of course, Wisconsin media outlets have been especially interested. Stations in Rhinelander and Wausau interviewed the Sicklers.
“It blows me away. We finally get our 15 minutes of fame. Well, this is well beyond 15 minutes.”
Link to WJFW story
Link to WSAW story
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