Family gifts two bear cubs at Ramona Wildlife Center with 467-pound pumpkin

This orphan bear cub was curious about the giant pumpkin that showed up in his enclosure at the SDHS Ramona Wildlife Campus.

Nov. 7, 2023 9:48 AM PT

A couple of bears have taken ownership of a giant pumpkin grown as a labor of love by the Bush family in Escondido.

The 467-pound veggie could have gone to waste, but now it is expected to provide hours of playtime — and food — for two orphan bear cubs living at the San Diego Humane Society Ramona Wildlife Center.

It took a coordinated effort by several people to transport and deliver the giant pumpkin to the bear cubs.

The giant pumpkin was the result of a small neighborhood contest, said Kristen Bush. During the COVID pandemic, several of the neighbors decided to plant gardens.

Helped along by Laura Hunter, the plant guru of the Quiet Hills neighborhood, about 10 families decided to grow giant pumpkins.

“It was just something fun for the neighborhood and the kids. The winner gets bragging rights,” Bush said.

The Bush family planted their pumpkins in May; the plants stopped getting bigger in early September.

To learn the pumpkin’s weight, dad Jason Bush used a pulley and hanging scale.

After the contest, however, the Bush family — who had hoped to donate the pumpkin to a group that could use it — could find no takers.

Then the television station KPBS picked up their story and connected them with the San Diego Humane Society’s Project Wildlife, which is housing two black bear cubs at the Ramona Wildlife Center.

“They came to us the first week of July, from the San Bernardino mountains,” said Autumn Nelson, wildlife operations manager at the SDHS Ramona Wildlife Center. “They were about 5 months old and 20 pounds each.”

Nelson said the bear cubs were found in a tree, with their deceased mother bear below them. It is unknown how she died.

Part of the wildlife center’s job is to teach the cubs survival skills and to bring out their natural behaviors. The cubs are expected to be released back into the wild in April or May of next year.

It took SDHS Ramona Wildlife Campus staff a bit of maneuvering to get the giant pumpkin into the bear enclosure.

“We’ve never had a 467-pound pumpkin here before. It will provide a lot of fun for the boys. We’re really curious to see what they will do with it,” Nelson said.

Staff at the center are expecting the bears to tear apart the pumpkin and eat at least some of it.

The first weekend in November, the Bush family loaded the pumpkin on the back of a pickup truck and hauled it to the Ramona facility. Wildlife Center staff then used a tractor to get the pumpkin off the truck and into the bear enclosure.

Nelson said that donations for all the animals are appreciated.

“This is the time of year the bears would be feeding on acorns. We also get a lot of fruits and vegetables such as persimmons, pomegranates and different squashes. We’re happy to receive all of it,” she said.

The center also accepts fur coats, which are given to the baby animals as bedding. “Everyone at Ramona is so kind to us; it’s a great place to house a wildlife center,” Nelson said.

Meanwhile, the Bush’s 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter are “over the moon” about the fate of their giant pumpkin, Kristen Bush said.

“Because the bear cubs are going back into the wild, we can’t watch them directly. But the staff promised to send us videos and photos,” she said.

As for the bear cubs, their initial reaction, as of Monday evening, was more curiosity than anything else.

“The bears got the pumpkin today. So far, they’ve been sitting on it like a table, pawing it and sniffing it,” said Andy Blue, campus director for SDHS Ramona Wildlife campus.

The Bush family plans on trying their luck with the giant pumpkins again next year, as long as the kids are interested.