This video footage captures the rescue of two orphaned bear cubs who got stuck at the top of a huge spruce tree in the Canadian wilderness.
The cubs became spooked after their mother was killed by a vehicle and ran up the 70ft tree, where they remained stranded for three days.
Volunteers at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society came to the rescue, enlisting the help of local hobby climber Stephen Bot, who fearlessly traversed the branches to help out.
“Those little cubs were not going to come down of their own accord,” said Angelika Langen, who runs the Northern Lights Wildlife Society, with her husband Peter and a team of volunteers in Smithers, BC.
“They just huddled into each other up there, scared to death.
“It was an enormous tree, had to be about 60 to 70 feet tall…we were all worried about Stephen’s safety, we were shouting up at him ‘don’t put yourself in danger.’
“We were joking that we needed a helicopter, he was up there at such a dizzying height.
“It was a wonderful thing to see the whole community come together to help out these cubs.”
The bears were finally brought back to safety near Cecil Lake, British Columbia, on May 15, 2019.
“I was so happy to have them down on the ground,” said Angelika.
The bears will be cared for by the wildlife rescue service until they are old enough to fend for themselves in the wild.
They will then be released “still wild” in the same spot they were found.
The remarkable rescue mission was captured on camera by Darcy Shawchek, 44, a professional photographer and videographer based in Fort St. John, British Columbia.
“It was pretty amazing to watch, those cubs chose one of the tallest trees in the area to get stuck in,” he said.