A wildlife rehabilitation center in New Jersey is streaming live video of an orphaned black bear cub 24 hours a day, because, tiny bear cub.
But the story behind Mike the cub is a heartbreaker. In January, his mother was shot dead in self defense by a deer hunter who stumbled upon her underground den in Allamuchy State Park, which was covered with logs and branches, according to Woodlands Wildlife Refuge. Two other siblings were crushed.
Just one week old, Mike and his brother, Ike, survived and were brought to the rehab center, where staff members bottle-fed the pair and created incubators for them to keep warm and sleep in.
Both weighed just 1 pound each when they were brought in.
Warning: Cute bear cub sleeping sounds.
But over the weekend, tragedy struck again when Mike lost his brother, too.
Woodlands Wildlife Refuge announced Ike's death in a Facebook post, saying he had "crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to join his Mother and two siblings."
It wasn't immediately clear why Ike died, but the refuge said "wild lives interrupted by human encounters, as unintentional as they may be, suffer greatly from known and unknown trauma and stresses."
Staff members had reported that it was initially challenging to get both cubs to feed.
"It is always hard to lose an innocent life in our care but it makes us honor our successes in giving second chances even more," the rehab center wrote.
With Mike suddenly all on his own, the refuge decided to at least give the little guy an audience.
Woodlands Wildlife Refuge gave N.J. Advance Media permission to place a video camera in an incubator to document the development of the now-four-week-old cub.
"We hope this inside look at the rehabilitation effort here at Woodlands will serve to educate the public," Executive Director Tracy Leaver told the media outlet. "We want to engage and educate the public about black bears."
Initially just a part-time broadcast, the wildlife refuge on Wednesday gave us all a gift and announced that the livestream would be up 24 hours a day. It also issued some caveats:
* Staff are not responsible for bodily functions that may happen between feedings (i.e. pooping).
* Sometimes the little guy will crawl out of the frame of the fixed-angle camera, so "bear with us."
So far, Mike has been making steady progress. And eventually, his caretakers hope to introduce him to a surrogate mother. But until then, Woodlands Wildlife Refuge will bless the internet with the livestream.
Watch the livestream all day and night here:
To help the wildlife refuge pay for the rescue, you can donate here.