A mother bear and her three cubs were rescued safely Saturday after spending hours trapped inside a large water storage tank in La Verne, California.
Video from the rescue showed the tense moment the mama bear climbed out of the tank, briefly stopping to scan her surroundings as first responders worked to keep her calm.
Glendora residents Eric McDonald and Jamie Kirk first discovered the distressed bear family inside the tank at about 8 a.m.
“We climbed up top, and there’s a small hole and right away we see a bear staring at us, kind of holding on to the walls because it was full of water,” Kirk said, according to ABC News.
Firefighters soon began what they called “Operation Care Bear,” launching a rescue effort for the bears, who had been stuck for more than 12 hours inside the dark concrete cistern.
Officials believe the animals may have been searching for water in the hot, humid conditions when they slipped through the narrow opening at the top of the tank, which was only about one foot wide.
Before the rescue could move forward, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife drained the remaining water from the storage tank to reduce the risk of the bears drowning.
The tank’s original opening was too small for rescuers to climb through and too narrow for the mother bear to escape on her own.
The crew members used a power saw to cut a larger access hole into the side of the tank. They then lowered a ladder inside, creating a makeshift ramp for the bears to climb out.
While one brave cub had managed to escape on its own earlier in the ordeal, the remaining three bears required a bit more coaxing.
“They were exhausted, so it took a few minutes for the first cub to come out, then the second cub got out, and then finally the mother,” said LAFD’s Keith Navarre, according to the news outlet.
Authorities confirmed that the lone cub who had escaped earlier was also safely reunited with the rest of the family as they trotted back into the wild.
