Appalachian Bear Rescue

12/06/2025

Daily Update:

Dec. 6th 2025

Forward and Onward with Black Bear Research!

ABR would like to extend a well earned congratulations to Dr. Swanepoel for successfully defending her Master’s thesis on Black Bear Parasites on Friday!! Dr. Swanepoel is one of the vets at UTCVM that treats all of our bears.

It is our pleasure at ABR to partner with and assist in the UTCM in their important bear related research. Part of our mission at ABR is research and furthering the knowledge of black bears, and without vets and researchers like Dr. Swanepoel, we would not be able to fulfill that mission goal. So once again, congratulations to Dr. Swanepoel DVM, MS!!

12/05/2025

ABR Daily Update- December 5, 2025 - ABR’s Most Well Known Resident

Weather: 44F (7C), Cloudy ☁️

Thank you all for giving our Hartley Bear painting so much love these last 24hrs!

Hartley Bear came to ABR on Valentines Day of 2019 and thus earned his name - Hartley. When he was found in Kentucky as a yearling, he was extremely malnourished and missing a large part of what should have been a very fluffy winter bear coat. While initially staff thought he might have mange due to his major hair loss, it turned out his hair was falling out as a result of his severe emaciation. During his stay at ABR, Hartley grew bigger (around) and stronger every day as he stole many supporters’ hearts. He ended up growing one of the nicest coats the staff at ABR had ever seen.

Hartley became somewhat of a “poster cub” for ABR, in fact many of you are here with us today because of this bear’s story. Thanks to you, bears like Hartley get a second chance at being a big, healthy wild bear!

The auction for his painting by Monica Wells Art goes through Sunday evening, put your bid in now here: https://ebay.us/m/MsWeZw

12/04/2025

ABR Daily Update-December 4, 2025-Cubs Forever Campaign Artwork Auction Pt. 6-Hartley Bear❤

Weather: 45F (7C) Humidity 69%, Cloudy☁️

Ever since Giving Tuesday, we haven’t been able to get the Hartley House off our minds (especially Curator Seth). And when you can’t get Hartley House off your mind….you also can’t get the bear himself off of your mind - Hartley Bear!

Hartley Bear arrived at the ABR facility on Valentine's Day in 2019 with a very peculiar hairdo. And by “peculiar” we mean, bearly any hair at all!!! The extremely malnourished yearling weighed just 12 pounds and was missing fur from over 50% of his body. The Hartley House building was constructed after ABR’s experience with Hartley Bear. Before him, we did not have adequate housing for such a "bear nekkid" bear (Beary Good Reads book club members will get this reference). Thus, the now beautiful, spacious and climate-controlled building was born.

What better way to keep with the theme of giving, Hartley House and Hartley himself than with Monica Wells Art latest canvas painting?!? You can begin bidding on this framed, original piece at 8PM eastern tonight. The bidding starts at $100 and will close on Sunday, December 7th at 8PM eastern. As always, proceeds from the auction will go towards the Cubs Forever Campaign, ensuring that any other future "nekkid bears" will have a warm place to stay. Thank you for your support.

BID HERE ON HARTLEY BEAR (*NOTE: Bidding will NOT open until 8PM tonight) - https://ebay.us/m/MsWeZw

12/03/2025

ABR Daily Update-December 3, 2025-THANK YOU🙏

Weather: 40F (4.4C) Humidity 74%, Cloudy☁️

We cannot thank you enough for showing up and supporting us throughout the day during yesterday’s Giving Tuesday adventure! Because of your immense generosity over the last four months, we have officially reached 99% of our total Cubs Forever Campaign Goal!!! We are now just $7,000 away from meeting the $685,000 target that we predicted it would cost us to complete the necessary infrastructure renovations that will allow us to welcome bear cubs back to the facility in 2026.

With Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 just about fully complete, our focus will soon shift below ground, into the soil. Throughout the construction of the two new enclosures, we have been in close communication with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the University of Tennessee to finalize exact methodologies for the upcoming, independent soil study. We have a meeting set with our partners before the upcoming holidays and hope to have more information on that in the New Year.

The support that we receive during the weeks between Giving Tuesday and New Years make up about half of Appalachian Bear Rescue’s entire annual operating budget! Aside from regular facility upkeep and our current ongoing renovations, your financial support is critical for ensuring that we are ready and stocked with milk replacement formula (especially after Curator Seth’s challenge yesterday), clean towels, new cub caves and anything else that an orphaned cub might need early next year - we want to be ready.

So, as the year winds down, please help us keep the momentum going! There are various ways that you can make an impact on a little bear cub’s life. To start, please watch or share the first video from a short holiday series that we are excited to be bringing to you from ReelVision LLC over the next few weeks. You can view that HERE: https://youtu.be/bYdKlWRILpU?si=W4SdEChV7E8uRRjL

We are so honored that you are along for the ride. 🐻❤

12/03/2025

THANK YOU FOR SUCH AN AMAZING GIVING TUESDAY ADVENTURE! 🐻

With your help, Curator Seth consumed his fair share of cub formula, solved the bike lock combination, pieced together a tricky jigsaw puzzle, exhibited good "cub criteria" in order to enter a wild enclosure, and finally, went for a swim in the chilly cub pool to retrieve the key to his "release"!

We hope you had fun with us today. Thank you so much for the comments, donations, likes, shares, laughs and overall support. With your generosity, we have raised just over half of our goal for the day. We will have a more final campaign number to share with you all tomorrow.

12/02/2025

35F isn’t too cold for cubs to go swimming, and apparently it isn’t too cold for Curator Seth either! Seth officially completed the day’s challenge by jumping in the cub pool to get a key to free himself from the Wild Enclosure.

Thanks everyone for following along and encouraging Seth today. And THANK YOU for ALL of your continued generosity towards our Cubs Forever Campaign to help us build new tomorrows for future cubs in need of ABR’s help. We couldn’t do any of this without you🐻❤️

12/02/2025

Tune in to see the final challenge that Curator Seth must complete👀

12/02/2025

Curator Seth has officially solved Clue #4! He is OUT in Wild Enclosure #1. Will he get home in time for dinner?

JOIN US LIVE in a few minutes for the last part of this all-day adventure!🐻

12/02/2025

Seth moves on to Acclimation Pen 1.5! He wants to thank ALL of you for your help near and far with our Giving Tuesday efforts (and for your jigsaw puzzle help).

Maybe, just maybe, Seth will get home in time for dinner😄

12/02/2025

Clue 3 of escaping Bear-Catraz requires Curator Seth to piece together puzzle pieces that he's found hidden throughout Hartley House Room #3. But he needs YOUR help! Use the link below to put the puzzle pieces back together for him - only then will he get to move out of the Hartley House and be one step closer to freedom!

An online jigsaw puzzle with 4 pieces.

12/02/2025

Curator Seth Escape from Bearcatraz Hartley House Check-In