@extinctera.org: Smokey Bear had been asking Americans to prevent wildfires since 1944. In 1950, a real bear cub nearly died in one. In May 1950, the Capitan Gap fire raced out of control in New Mexico's Capitan Mountains, part of the Lincoln National Forest. A crew fighting that fire found a tiny American black bear cub (Ursus americanus) clinging to a charred tree. His paws and hind legs were badly burned. He weighed about 5 pounds (about 2 kilograms). New Mexico game warden Ray Bell flew him to Santa Fe, where a veterinarian treated and bandaged his burns. The cub recovered and was soon on his way to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., to become the living symbol of Smokey Bear. He got so many letters at the zoo that the U.S. Postal Service gave him his own ZIP code, 20252. He retired in 1975 and died at the zoo on November 9, 1976. His body was sent back to Capitan, New Mexico, and buried at Smokey Bear Historical Park. A cub who barely survived a forest fire spent the next 25 years as the living face of fire prevention.

Extinct Era

Open In TikTok:

Region: US

Saturday 24 October 2026 17:03:51 GMT