B.C. conservation officer uses CPR smarts to resuscitate bear

A conservation officer in Prince George, B.C.,used his CPR trainingto save a bear'slifeafter it wastranquillized.

Gary Van Spengen's conservation team was called to a residential neighbourhood Monday after afemale bear was spotted ina tree.

A biologist tranquillizedthe bear while it was up the tree, andafter what Van Spengendescribed as a "soft landing," the bear stopped breathing after it hit the ground, but still had a heartbeat.

Van Spengen said he has never seen a bear stop breathing after being tranquillized in his 20 years as a conservation officer.

"We could tell the heart was still beating but the chest wasn't moving at all.I didn't want to lose this bear because I wanted to get a radio collar on it, so I started doing chest compressions on the bear to try to get air in and out of the lungs," Van Spengen told CBC Radio's B.C. Almanac on Tuesday.

'She's wandering around doing bear things right now, eating and trying to fatten up for the winter.' Gary Van Spengen, conservation officer

While he said he did consider mouth-to-mouth breathing,another component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),Van Spengen jokingly said, "[Bears] usually don't carry breath mints."

Van Spengen said it was similar to doing chest compressions on a person, where the diaphragm is pushed up and down, to move air in and out of the chest cavity.

"I've gotten a bit of razzing from it, but it's all in good fun," he said.

After 10 to 15 minutes, the bear started breathing on her own. After being fitted with a radio collar, the bear was released south of Prince George.

Conservation officers plan to track the bear'smovementsas part of a study on the interaction between humans and bears in the area.

Van Spengensaid this particular bear wasa good candidate because it hadn't started eating garbage, sowould not be considered a nuisance bear.

"She's wandering around doing bear things right now, eating and trying to fatten up for the winter," he said.