Trooper comes to the rescue of little bear falling behind

A mama black bear in New Hampshire had her hands full trying to herd her four young cubs across a busy roadway. One youngster kept hanging back, seemingly unable to keep up with the others. The distraught mother wouldn't leave the little one behind but kept going back to coax him along, with the other cubs in tow.

It was a traffic-stopping scene, and State Trooper Thomas Owens stepped in to help. Owens knew it's not a good idea to get between a mama bear and her cubs, so he watched the situation to get an idea of what was going on. He soon realized one cub was too weak to keep up.

He called the New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife Service, which had more expertise in rescuing wildlife. When experts arrived they discovered that not one but two baby bears were in distress. A female black bear can produce from one to six cubs in a litter every other year, and this mom had been busy with five mouths to feed.

The two brother cubs were carefully rescued and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center where they were given the extra nutrition and TLC needed to get them back on their feet again. Soon they would be strong enough to no longer be the little bears lagging behind.