An unnamed woman spotted the creature while trekking near Mount Rogers in Virginia, USA. From a distance, it looked like a medium-sized dog.
The woman was shocked. After all, she was miles away from any cities or towns. How had the dog ended up so far from civilization, and why was it in such bad shape? The poor creature was emaciated, unsteady on its legs, and covered in painful-looking sores.
It wasn't a dog
She couldn't get close enough to help. So the woman snapped a few pictures and forwarded them to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. She wanted rescue workers to know that there was a lost and sick dog in desperate need of help.
Staff from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources got in touch a few hours later, although it wasn't the response that the woman was expecting. The message said that the woman hadn't encountered a stray dog. Instead, it was a baby brown bear.
Around 6,000 brown bears live in and around the Virginia mountain ranges.
This baby bear had contracted a severe case of scabies, which explained the sores and bald patches. Scabies is a contagious skin condition caused by tiny mites that burrow under the skin. It affects people, pets, and many different types of animals.
Scabies is relatively harmless if treated early with lotion and medicine. But long-term infestations can lead to bacterial infection, causing skin sores, septicaemia, and, in extreme cases, heart disease and chronic kidney disease.
Treating scabies
Katie Martin, a biologist at the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, is overseeing a project to locate and treat bears with scabies.
She said, "Fighting the disease is very difficult because isolating sick individuals from each other is difficult. There are no large-scale treatment plans, but we are running a research initiative to examine the movement rates of bears infected with scabies."
"Once we have that data, we can start developing plans to treat cases and stop the spread."
