Working together with local residents, hunters and rescue workers, employees of the Environmental Board caught the bear cubs and took them to a nearby forest.

The Environmental Board wrote on social media that in situations like this, it is very important for young animals to be returned to their natural environment as quickly as possible where there is as little human activity and as few other disturbances as possible.

Biologist Harri Valdmann told ERR that the cubs are unlikely to reunite with their mother.

Valdmann said the cubs could return to areas inhabited by people or fall prey to wolves.

"It would be a miracle if the mother happened to come across her cubs again," Valdmann said.

According to him, the mother bear has most likely already moved elsewhere and it is unlikely that the cubs will find her again. Valdmann said something unusual must have happened, as bears do not normally become separated from their cubs in this way.

"In the summer, the maternal instinct should be very strong. Something dramatic must have happened," the biologist said.

Valdmann said the chances of the cubs reuniting with their mother would be greater if the mother's whereabouts were known and the cubs could be taken close to her. In his view, there is little point in simply releasing them into the forest and hoping they will find her.

"They won't become wild bears anymore," Valdmann said.

But wildlife expert Peep Männil told ERR that if the mother bear's home range is roughly known, there is still a chance that she and her cubs will find each other.

"Taking the cubs back to the forest is the only way for the mother and her cubs to reunite," Männil said.

He said that keeping the cubs out of the forest would have eliminated that possibility entirely.

"A mother bear will return to her cub only if the area around it is safely free of people. Bear cubs receive the best possible upbringing for life as a bear from their mother," the Environmental Board wrote on social media.

Männil said it remains a major question how the cubs became separated from their mother. In his view as well, there must have been a significant disturbance, as such cases do not occur without reason.

"Bears are currently in their mating season and conflicts between bears may have arisen. Male bears can be quite aggressive during this period. Humans may have had nothing to do with this, but that possibility cannot be ruled out either," Männil said.

Valdmann added that it would be important to determine what happened to the mother bear. He said it is not typical for a mother bear with cubs born that same year to move around actively during the mating season.

The Environmental Board noted that experience in Estonia and elsewhere shows that raising large wild animals in captivity by humans usually does not produce the desired results. Animals that become accustomed to people may later be unable to survive independently in the wild.

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