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Wildlife experts have criticized a group of people who frightened two young bear cubs and left one of them unwell just to take a photo.
A group of six individuals were recorded approaching the cubs when they saw them in a tree near an apartment complex in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
The young animals would normally have been kept away from the complex by a metal fence, but they had climbed onto a branch just above the fence.
Some of the group were seen reaching into the leaves to grab the bears and pull them out.
Eventually, a woman manages to pull one bear off its perch and walks away with it.
Holding it with one hand, she is then seen stomping her feet like an excited child, shaking the cub in the process.
She then holds it still and smiles while a friend takes a picture of her, tightening her grip on the animal after it tries to wriggle free.
The cub eventually manages to escape her clutches and runs along the fence while the woman chases it, failing to escape into the vegetation.
Some of the other women in the group tried to grab the other cub but couldn’t get it out of the tree.
Officials from North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission were called to the scene by witnesses and took the trapped cub into care.
Ashley Hobbs, a biologist with the government agency, told CBS News: ‘I approached the people who did this at the apartment complex and explained the danger of approaching and handling wildlife,
‘There’s always a chance that the mother is nearby and may try to defend her cubs.
‘It also endangers the bear cubs. Handling a bear cub poses a risk of injuring that cub and increases the chance it will become separated from its mother.’
The bear cub was found to be lethargic, limping and had a low body temperature.
Since its mother was nowhere to be seen, it now has to be kept in captivity until it is old enough to survive in the wild.
