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By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune October 21. 2014 6:43PM Bear cub captured in Ashland pharmacy A bear cub walks through Rite Aid in Ashland on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Dean Graham An overturned shopping cart wasn’t too big or too small — it was just the right size to capture and hold a bear cub wandering the aisles at Rite Aid in Ashland on Sunday. The 13-pound female cub was healthy, not starving, according to Mark Vargas, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said it’s small for this time of year and that it’s likely it was born later than January, the normal birthing month. The cub had already been captured by the time he arrived to pick it up, Vargas said. He was told it had wandered into a nearby motel room before making its way to Rite Aid in Tolman Creek Plaza, in the 2300 block of Ashland Street. Ashland Police responded to the scene about 6:30 p.m., according to Deputy Chief Corey Falls, who did not have further details. “We get a lot of bear sightings in Ashland, people see them all the time,” Vargas said. “There are a lot of bears in this area.” He said it’s rare for such a small cub to not have a mother nearby, and he speculated that she could have been nearby, but was “probably smart enough to stay away from a lot of people.” Vargas said Fish and Wildlife took a report last week of a sow in the Tolman Creek area that could have been the cub’s mother. He said the cub was taken to Corvallis, where it was checked by a Fish and Wildlife veterinarian. It will end up with PAWS, an animal shelter in Washington State known as Progressive Animal Welfare Society when it was founded in 1967. An employee at Rite Aid declined to be interviewed for this story, saying they were told not to speak with the media. Reach Daily Tidings editor Bert Etling at [email protected] or 541-631-1313. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/betling. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141021/NEWS/141029910 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->