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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Northern California man who admitted to taking two bear cubs from their den and notified officials after he was unable to care for them pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited species, wildlife officials said.
Cody Dylon Setzer, 29, and a co-worker who has not been identified and cooperated with authorities took the month-old bears from their den in a tree that had fallen across a forest road, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Tuesday.
Setzer contacted wildlife officers on March 9, 2019, and told them he had found the baby bears.
But wildlife officers became suspicious of his story after they went out to the site and found no bear tracks or habitat.
Setzer's co-worker at a timber management company confessed to wildlife offices and cooperated with the investigation.
The den site was located east of Salt Creek and Interstate 5 in Shasta County, about 90 miles south of where Setzer said he had found them and had been destroyed. Their mother was never located.
The bear cubs were taken to CDFW's Wildlife Health Laboratory in Rancho Cordova and later turned over for rehabilitation to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, which said they were the youngest ever brought into its facility.
The cubs were returned to their native habitat in Shasta County on April 28, 2020, after growing old enough to survive on their own, the department said.