The American brown bear (Ursus arctos) and the Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) are the stars of North American wildlife. They’re equal parts threatening and gorgeous. Every wildlife enthusiast would love to see one in person, though most hikers probably wouldn’t be too keen on meeting either.

Despite their status at the top of North America’s wilderness food chain, they aren’t invincible. They’re certainly not fireproof either.

The Thomas Fires in California from 2018 ravaged through many North American ecosystems, including many of the woodlands, forests and plains that the bears and cougars called home.

Approximately 281,893 acres of land felt the blazing flames of the Thomas Fire. Many animals were caught in the blazes too. These 2 bears and 5-month old puma were only some of them.

The pair of bears were found in Los Padres National Park. Their paws suffered 3rd-degree burns. Both bears were fully grown, and one of them was even pregnant.

Truly, not the place for an expecting mother bear to end up.

Along with the bears, a 5-month old mountain lion had also gotten too close for comfort to the fires.

Walking was now out of the question as it was excruciatingly painful on their paws.

This was when they came into the care of Dr. Jaime Peyton and the team at UC Davis Veterinary Medicine.

While a veterinarian is more than equipped to deal with any number of pets, a pair of bears and a cougar don’t exactly come into the vet’s office every day.

But being prepared to treat any living thing is what a vet does, and Dr. Jaime Peyton’s team was no exception. Though this wasn’t going to be a straightforward burn treatment with ointment and bandages. How exactly you operate for 3rd-degree burns on a bear and a mountain lion?

First order of business: sedate the animals. Obviously.

Operating on brown bears and mountain lions is as risky as it gets. The American brown bear can easily weigh between 200 and 400 kilograms (440 to 880 pounds), and a young cougar might already be nearing 100 pounds.

Doctors also need to be sure to finish operating before the sedative runs out.

Now that they’re asleep and restrained, it’s time to work on the burns. Third-degree burns are pretty nasty, and always require skin-grafts to treat.

Even in humans, finding a skin donor is a tough call.

Where could you possibly find a skin donor for a bear and a cougar?

Well, ironically, in a fish – something bears eat quite a lot.

Specifically, Tilapia. Tilapia skin is remarkably effective for grafting and treating burn wounds. It’s been used on human burn victims in the past, to great effect. Tilapia skin is safe and non-infectious, has lots of type I collagen, and has a structure pretty similar to human skin.

So with some tilapia skin over the burn wounds, and bandages made from corn husks and rice paper, Peyton’s team were able to make a skin-safe graft that would help the skin heal without infection.

That tilapia skin started working its wonders pretty quickly.

The trio of wild burn victims were able to walk on their paws after treatment, something that would’ve been impossible without the tilapia grafts.

“Nothing is more rewarding than when you take an animal that won’t walk because she’s so painful, and you try a new therapy, and I put on those bandages – the Tilapia skin – on her feet, and right after we got done and she woke up, she stood up for the first time and was able to walk.” – Dr. Jaime Peyton, veterinary doctor at UC Davis Veterinary Medicine

Thanks to the wonders of science, and some phenomenal women working in it, these animals live to see another day. They’d have otherwise died in the wild from their injuries, like most animals typically do. After a few weeks of recovery and further treatment, the animals were released back into the wild.

It’s fascinating, remarkable, and a teeny bit cute to watch.

Watch the video below!

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Source: Lima et al. 2019 in the Journal of Surgical Case Reports, TIME on Facebook, Brown Bear and Cougar on Wikipedia , National Geographic