It’s a Grizzly Bear Survival Program. For Grizzly Bears.

In British Columbia, researchers have undertaken a unique challenge: tracking orphan grizzly cubs, reared in a shelter, to see whether they can thrive back in the wild.

One morning in mid-July, Lana M. Ciarniello, a bear biologist in British Columbia, caught a flight from Vancouver Island, where she lives, to a wildlife sanctuary in the northwestern part of the province to meet two baby grizzlies, the newest subjects in an unusual study she is conducting. The two cubs — brothers, born this spring — were orphaned when their mother was shot. Traditionally, grizzly mothers in North America tend their offspring for at least two years, teaching them to find food and keep out of trouble before nudging them to live on their own. These cubs were far too young to survive without her. Most grizzly cubs orphaned in North America — say, in the lower 48 U.S. states where they are endangered, or in Alaska and Canada where they are more plentiful — are shot on the spot, left to die in the wild or placed in a zoo.