A disturbing video captured a group of people pulling bear cubs out of a tree near an apartment complex in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Rachel Staudt recorded the video of the group taking selfies with the bear cubs and shared it with WLOS.
Ashley Hobbs, with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said that officials were made aware of the video on Tuesday (April 16). Hobbs was sent to the scene and found one of the bear cubs alone. She said the bear was okay but was taken to a rehab facility. The bear will eventually be released back into the wild.
"We did see the video in response to the bear being left alone," Hobbs said. "We do think that the bear probably had a pretty traumatic experience."
She did not say what may have happened to the bear cubs seen in the video being pulled out of the trees. Hobbs said they tracked down the people in the video and warned them how dangerous their actions were.
"We did follow up with the people who pulled the bear out of the tree,"Â Hobbs told the news station. "We did confront them on site that day and let them know how irresponsible and potentially deadly it could be for that cub to be separated from its mom, especially ripped out of a tree like that."