ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A brown bear cub found last month near a dead sow in Nome has been taken to Anchorage as biologists work to nurse the malnourished animal back to health.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers were notified April 29 about the dead female bear, which reportedly had been killed the previous day in Venetia Creek, KTVA-TV reported Wednesday.

State law requires that hunters bring killed bears’ hides and skulls to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Troopers confirmed that the bear had been lactating and they found the cub in the area. The cub is now recuperating at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage.

Pat Lampi, the zoo’s executive director, said the male cub is one of the smallest he’s ever seen.

Lampi said it appears to be about 5 months old and arrived weighing about 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) at a point in its life when it should weigh about 20 pounds (9 kilograms).

Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said the cub will be sent later this summer to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, a facility near Tacoma, Washington, which has been on the department’s placement list for a brown bear cub.

If a placement slot isn’t available, Fish and Game policy calls for cubs discovered in incidents like the one near Nome to be euthanized.

“We’re very fortunate that they had room for this cub,” Marsh said. “The zoo, of course, is holding the cub until permitting work is complete.”

The cub isn’t on public display at the zoo yet, Lampi said, but people will be able to see it before it goes to Washington.

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Information from: KTVA-TV, http://www.ktva.com