Police in southern Oregon held an unlikely suspect overnight - a well-behaved black bear cub.

Police Chief Don Brown said a teenage boy and his parents took the cub to the police station in a large plastic storage bin after the boy found the cub whimpering in the bushes outside his house in the town of Myrtle Creek. He said the mother bear was nowhere in sight.

Mr Brown said it could have been risky to pick up the cub because the mother bear could have spotted him and attacked, but the 12lb (5.5kg) female cub was "very well-behaved" while spending the night at the station. Wildlife department officials are still hunting for the missing mother.