STROUD TOWNSHIP -- After months of rehabilitation, two species of wildlife are finally back home. A pair of bear cubs and a bald eagle were released into the wild Friday afternoon.
The two bear cubs have spent the past few months recovering at the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center near Stroudsburg.
"It`s pretty amazing, it was a lot of work in both of their cases," said Kathy Uhler, the owner of the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center.
Two of the cubs were orphaned. For one of the cubs, its mother was killed by a vehicle in Lycoming County. The other cub was found in Luzerne County.
"They were not weened when they were picked up and would have definitely not survived. So they're basically given a second chance," said William Williams, a Wildlife Conservation Officer.
It took a group of game commission officers to tranquillize the bears, carry them out and then prep the pair for travel.
The cubs were tattooed inside their mouths for identification. It's something the Wildlife Commission said is necessary.
"If it's recaptured again we'll know how far it's wandered from where we released it, how much weight it gained, and some other general information," said Williams.
As the pair were loaded into a bear trap and taken away to their new home in state game lands in Sullivan County, their neighbor, a juvenile bald eagle, was getting ready to leave the center to be released back in to the wild.
"Evidentially he crashed into something and bruised his wing and at the same time he had a pretty bad respiratory infection," said Uhler.
Now healed, the threatened species was taken to an undisclosed location in Monroe County and with a small group of handlers, it was released back home.