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KENAI - While most people haven't seen many bears since the snow started to fly, Peak Oilfield Service Co. workers in Beluga were seeing too much of one little bruin earlier this month, so they decided to call for help.

"It was just hanging around the camp, trying to get food and doing bluff charges," said Peak foreman Kelly Curtiss about the brown bear cub that was about the size of an average dog.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Soldotna was called, but due to budget limitations, flying across Cook Inlet to tranquilize the bear wasn't initially an option, until Peak said they would pick up the bill.

"They really went above and beyond. After we went through the permitting process in Juneau and found a home for the bear at a zoo, Peak chartered a plane to get me there, and get me and the bear back. They were really concerned about the animal and wanted to see it survive and taken care of," said Larry Lewis, the Fish and Game wildlife technician who responded to the incident.

Curtiss said Peak was committed to saving the animal, once they realized there was no mother to care for it. He said the task of capturing the cub wasn't all that simple, though. After arriving Nov. 6, he spent the day looking for the animal without ever seeing a sign of him.

However, as the sun went down, his luck began to change.

"I was just starting to think I wouldn't get him, when he looked in the sliding glass door from the patio," Lewis said.

The cub was peering into the dining hall, so Lewis said he utilized a piece of sausage from the kitchen as bait.

He injected tranquilizers into the pork-product and fed it to the baby bruin. As the sedatives took hold, Lewis used a catch-pole to get the animal under control. It was then that he realized this cub was in bad shape, particularly heading into winter.

"He was a tiny little thing, and I think he had been on his own for a while. He only weighed 27.8 pounds. He could have easily weighed 100 pounds more for his age at this time of year," he said.

Lewis said the bear had been reported hanging around the camp for at least five days attempting to forage food, and it had apparently tried to take a wild meal, as well.

"He had a few porcupine quills in his snout," he said.

Lewis said between the cub's age and size, it was clear it wouldn't have made it through the winter, but ironically, it was these two factors that also lent to it finding a home.

"Young cubs are easier to work with, so we were able to place him" he said.

Shannon Jensen, curator of the Alaska Zoo, confirmed the cub took to captivity quickly.

"He's doing very well. He went from 27 pounds to 35 pounds in the first week, and has been steadily putting on about a pound a day," she said.

The cub has been fattening up on a milk formula, red meat, apples and other produce, and a bit of puppy food.

She said the cub will spend the winter at the Alaska Zoo, then be shipped to his permanent home at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, as soon as they complete construction on a new exhibit for him.