Where was their mother? A mother black bear never abandoned her cubs, especially not ones this young. If she was nearby, standing next to this tree made Marco the single biggest target in the forest. He backed away slowly, his eyes sweeping the dense bushes. "Hey bear," he called out softly, his voice trembling slightly.
Silence. No protective roar. No heavy crashing through the brush. Determined to figure out what had happened, Marco began searching the area nearby. Fifty yards down the slope, hidden beneath a thick patch of pine trees, he spotted strange marks in the dirt: heavy tire tracks, crushed ferns, and snapped branches.
He knelt in the mud and picked up a small object half-buried near a stump. It was a bright orange plastic cap—the tail end of a tranquilizer dart. Marco’s stomach dropped. Illegal hunters had been operating in his logging area.