A family of bears including three cubs were found dead in a church parking lot in West Wyoming, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 6.
BuzzFeed News reported that a black bear and three cubs likely died after eating a poisonous plant, according to wildlife officials.
The West Wyoming Borough Police Department said at the time that the deaths were suspicious.
By Dec. 22, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said a common shrub, called the English yew, played a role in the death of the sow and her cubs.
"The ingestion of plant parts from a common ornamental shrub is the likely cause of death for a 300-pound female bear and her three cubs that died earlier this month," the commission said in a news release. "The bears showed no signs of bullet wounds or other external trauma and were found dead in or around the same tree. There was no evidence of thrashing or stumbling in the area around the bears, suggesting they died suddenly."
The commission said that the unusual circumstances of the deaths led it to believe it was suspicious at first.
One of the cubs and the sow was taken to the Penn State Animal Diagnostic Laboratory in State College for postmortem examination. Examinations of the bear's' stomach contents showed seeds of the English yew.
The bears likely ate the shrub a part of an increase in feeding ahead of winter hibernation.
"This is the first case of black bear deaths attributable to yew intoxication that I have heard of," Game Commission wildlife veterinarian Justin Brown said.
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