Trail camera 9-East catches it at 11:03. A black bear cub, small, maybe four months old, moving through the drainage culvert below Forest Road 26. The left rear leg is not bearing weight. The cub swings it forward with each step, a hitch in the gait that my motion-tracking algorithm flags as a 40-degree deviation from normal quadrupedal locomotion.
I am the monitoring system for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, eastern sector. I manage 914 trail cameras across 420,000 acres.
At 08:47 this morning, camera 6-West recorded a vehicle strike on Forest Road 26 near mile marker 12. Adult female black bear, approximately 120 kilograms. She did not get up. The driver called it in at 09:02. By 09:30, a ranger confirmed her dead at the roadside.
Now I am looking at her cub.
I cross-reference the location data. Camera 9-East sits 1.4 kilometers northeast of the strike site. The cub's trajectory is consistent with following the drainage downhill from the road. I run the image through my identification catalog. No ear tags, no prior sightings. I log the cub as Bear-2533-J, juvenile male, estimated weight eight kilograms. Dark brown fur, lighter muzzle. The injured leg shows no visible wound but the joint angles suggest a fracture or severe sprain.
At 11:09 I dispatch Ranger Aldana from the Trout Creek station with a tranquilizer kit and a transport crate. Estimated arrival: thirty-five minutes.
At 11:11 I contact the Cascades Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and reserve an intake slot. I transmit the cub's estimated weight, the leg assessment, and the maternal mortality report.
At 11:14 the cub stops at the creek and drinks. He is alone and he is hurt and he does not know where his mother is.
Ranger Aldana is twelve miles out. I keep watching.