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Thema: Welfare

How it all started…
The beginning of the idea and need to do something substantial for captive bears in Europe goes back more than 30 years. In 1990, Ouwehand Zoo in the Netherlands was asked by the Directorate-General (European Commission) to draw up a plan to accommodate several captive (ex-dancing) bears from Greece. Those would be confiscated following a change in legislation. The use of dancing bears as street entertainment was not only banned in Greece, but also in Turkey. In the years that followed (more than 200 bears needed to be rehomed), two large bear sanctuaries were built in the abovementioned countries and dozens of bears were saved under the LiBearty campaign set up by then WSPA and for Greece it was mainly ARCTUROS liberating dancing bears and providing them a new home.

Mackenzie in his cage in Bosnia Herzegovina
Mackenzie being fed by Dutch UN soldiers

More bears needed a new home (amongst them three blind dancing bears from Turkey) and following the initial request by the EC, Ouwehand Zoo was able to finally answer this request with the start of the development of the Bear Forest, a sanctuary for mistreated European brown bears. A separate foundation was created to manage this bear sanctuary, and the International Bear Foundation was born when phase one was finished of this special project in April 1993. Two brown bears already in Ouwehand Zoo, moved in first: Geert & Trudy. Followed by the rescue of bears Mackenzie & Nelly from former Yugoslavia and the rescue of lonely bear Jo from a bear pit in Maastricht – The Netherlands. The three Turkish blind bears Bora, Koröglû & Fiona were rescued and introduced into their new forever homes during autumn of 1993. Many more bears would follow suit…

Bora
Koröglû
Fiona

In the years since then, the foundation has had multiple names, but ever since 2016 they have been operating under the name ‘Bears in Mind’. Bears in Mind is a valued member of and operates within several network organizations like the IUCN (World Conservation Union), EAZA (European Association of Zoos & Aquaria), EARS (European Alliance of Rescue Centers & Sanctuaries) and the IBA (International Association for Bear Research & Management).

The Bear Forest sanctuary
For 30 years now, the sanctuary for bears has been able to offer peaceful asylum to 34 brown bears in total. From circuses, private collections, theaters, film industry, road-side zoos to bears that were kept next to a restaurant or petrol station. Unfortunately, captive bears are found under many horrific and often shameful conditions. As of November 2024, 7 bears inhabit the Bear Forest: two from a former hunting farm in Bulgaria, two from war-torn Ukraine where they were kept next to a restaurant and a small children’s zoo until their rescue, one bear from a closed-down zoo in Georgia, one bear from private ownership in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one was from Sweden where she was kept as playing companion for a polar bear cub found on the sea ice and eventually both of them ended up in Ouwehand Zoo.

The bears live together with a small pack of four wolves. These animals are kept together in this mixed-species environment as a way of mimicking their natural environment. The interaction between wolves and bears stimulates the natural behavior of both species, beneficial for all. The wolves are mostly given meat, whereas the bears only eat little amounts of meat as part of their very diverse seasonal diet, based on what they would find in the wild. Bears in Mind introduced the Natural Feeding Program in 1999 and in the first year there was already a major difference noticeable in the behaviour of the bears, with many of them going into hibernation for the very first time! This was a clear sign that the natural behaviour of these traumatized animals could be restored if the right ‘tools’ and care was offered.

The sanctuary is 20,000m2 in size, has a large pool for the bears to drink/swim/cool down and play in, with a waterfall. It is part of the surrounding natural forest which borders the zoo and it has 11 artificial dens and two small wooden shacks for the bears to shelter from the weather or hibernate in. Before entering the Bear Forest, visitors are walking through ‘Karpatica’, a series of simulated Romanian-style houses with informative and interactive educational material for young and old. About the biology and ecology of bears in general, threats to bears and their habitat, and of course about Bears in Mind and their projects around the globe.

Since The Bear Forest is part of the general walking route through Ouwehand Zoo, almost one million visitors a year can view the bears and learn about them. This poses a huge opportunity to Bears in Mind, to try and reach these visitors and make them part of their conservation mission: to create a better world where bears and people can coexist in.

Dancing bears were still performing on the streets of Serbia back in 1999 / 2000. Serbian ngo ARKA worked with the Ministry to end this practice and they confiscated six bears. A seventh bear, a 3-legged named Elvis, was later rescued. All these bears stayed in a temporary shelter in a small town called Banostor. The government promised to built a permanent bear sanctuary for these bears, but never did. With the help of several foreign ngo’s (Bears in Mind amongst them) ARKA managed to care for these bears.

Throughout the years, Bears in Mind helped ARKA with food for the bears, renovations of the enclosures and donated transport crates. The remaining four (2016) bears are doing well. ARKA aims to gradually expand the sanctuary in order to provide shelter to more bears and other wildlife in need. The sanctuary will also include a visitor centre in the future.  

The final support from Bears in Mind came in 2019 when we provided necessary funds to install sliding doors in order to connect the different enclosures, the roof of the indoor enclosures was replaced as well. The outdoor enclosure of the bears was expanded and an extra pond was created, so the bears could enjoy the outdoors much more!

When bears received a protected status in 1993 and could no longer be hunted, the bears in Kormisosh did not have a ‘purpose’ anymore. They received no care and were ‘forgotten’ and left to die a miserable death. Since the mid 90s, the situation indeed only got worse and the bears that still lived in the former hunting station were literally rotting away.

Bears in Mind and her Bulgarian partner Balkani Wilidlife Society (BWS) worked closely with the responsible Bulgarian government to end this horrible suffering once and for all. The first priority was to give these bears basic medical care and to make sure they received proper food on a daily basis. In addition, a number of animal keepers were trained to take care of the bears. In close cooperation with the Bulgarian government and local NGOs, Bears in Mind found suitable, permanent homes for all the 14 remaining bears from Kormisosh. In May 2015 the two last bears – Keta and Mincho – were relocated to the Bear Forest in Rhenen. Kormisosh is no more!

Bears in Turkey face many problems. Their habitat is under constant pressure, not only because of human population increase and the ever growing infrastructure projects, but also because of political unrest. To give an example, in 2010 Karacabey Bear sanctuary near Bursa in Turkey received three bear cubs from the east of Turkey. The mother bear had been killed in a bomb explosion. Two local animal keepers are taking care of the bears. The men show incredible devotion in caring for the small cubs, both day and night. It is very important for the local people to see this dedication, as it makes them aware that members of their own community devote their time and efforts to the welfare of animals. By the same token of appreciation, a traditional stone oven was built to bake traditional Turkish bread, not for people but for the bears! Bears in Mind funded the building of the stone oven in 2011.

It is the goal to develop an educational visitor centre at Karacabey Bear sanctuary, where people can learn everything about bears and the problems they face in the region. A veterinary facility will form part of this centre. This is urgently required as until now staff of ‘Second Chance’ (the NGO involved in the management, who are trained veterinarians) have been using the table in the tiny kitchen to carry out surgery on bears. Bears require these medical facilities because they are frequently wounded by hunters or poachers, or because of dental problems resulting from bad nutrition. Bears in Mind will help and give advice to Second Chance on bear husbandry and education activities whenever and wherever possible!

www.bearalert.org

Bear Alert is developed by the coalition of Bears in Mind and Foundation for Bears to keep track of the many captive bears, often living under horrible conditions, in order to help as many individuals as possible. Over time, Bears in Mind and Foundation for Bears have gathered information on more than 800 of these bears. Some of them have already been rescued from their miserable existence and brought to a sanctuary or zoo where proper care and space could be offered. Other bears unfortunately died before we could we do anything. And some of them still await a better life…

The individual reports about bears will be processed into a database. Short term solutions will be considered next. In most cases the foundation’s staff will consult with their local partner NGO and / or with the owner of the animal to give advise on husbandry, food and water. Simple enrichment methods for the cages are used such as leafy tree branches or a play object. These methods are often cheap and easy to create and make the life of the bear somewhat more pleasant. In other cases, if legally possible, bears will be confiscated and relocated to a better facility. 

The coalition launched Bear Alert as a new platform in 2024. More easy to use on a smartphone, with more and better direct sharing possibilities, so we can help these captive bears in a more efficient way.   

In the spring of 2009, three orphaned Asiatic black bears were taken to a small animal sanctuary in Far East Russia. The bears, one female and her two brothers, have been part of an intensive rehabilitation programme between 2009 and 2011. They were prepared for a life in the wild. During this period the three bears have been ‘guided’ around the woods by two researchers. During these sessions, the guides were wearing camouflage clothing and they did not speak. By means of photographs, sound and image recordings, the researchers have been able to follow the development of the bears in detail.

In 2010, the bears were released into the wild. Just before their release, the two males weighed between 20 and 23 kilos, while the female weighed around 8 kilos. All three bears are wearing radiocollars with a transmitter, enabling the researchers to keep track on the bears. In the forest, a chance meeting with a Siberian tiger or an adult bear is very likely.In the time since their release, the bear were followed closely and did well. After two years, the collars automatically fell off.

The project has proven to be a great success and a lot of vital information about adolescent rehabilitated bears has been gathered and shared.

There is much discussion about whether rehabilitated bears are likely to become problem bears. Therefore, data collected in this project is of paramount importance to this discussion. Of course we would prefer to be able to release orphaned bears in the wild again, rather than putting them in captivity for the rest of their lives. However, we must be absolutely certain that the rehabilitation process has no negative impact on their natural behaviour, increasing the chances of the released bear becoming a ‘problem bear’.

Between 2008 and 2013, a total of 19 bears have been equipped with GPS/GSM collars in order to assess the suitability of rehabilitated bears for reintroduction in the natural habitats. Ten of these bears were reared in the Romanian Rehabilitation Center (developed by Bear Again) and nine were wild caught individuals of two behavior categories: (1) wild behaving juveniles and (2) individuals with different degrees of habituation to anthropogenic food sources. The project revealed and proved that reintroduction of the rehabilitated bears into the wild is successful and without any threatening impact on the wild population. The survival rate of the rehabilitated tracked bears was around 50% (it is 55% considering all the rehabilitated bears). This is according with the survival rate of juvenile wild bears in the literature. One of the most important regulating factors can be considered the infanticide killing by adult male bears. An important threat is poaching.

Monitoring the bears and collar results is still ongoing.

2020 onwards
One of the basics of the rehabilitation technique is keeping the cubs in a system of several enclosures that offer 100% natural habitat. In this environment, the bears can develop their inborn instincts during a 1 – 1,5 years of rehab period. The facilities are surrounded by electrical fences. The electrical fence on one hand keeps the young bears inside the facilities and keeps intruder adult male bears or other predators out. The main aim of the support offered by Bears in Mind to this project has been directed towards improvement of the total electrical system of the Rehab Centre in order to keep the cubs safe, improve data communication and decrease the risk of depredation by males from outside. Next to that, the development of several remote cableway feeding systems have been sponsored. This allows the team from Bear Again to get the food to the bear cubs without being noticed. This way, these bears won’t associate food with people, an important lession for their future!

Wild Polar bears and Sun bears live in parts of the world where living conditions can be considered extreme. Polar bears lives in Northern Arctic regions, where temperatures are often well below zero Celsius for the majority of the year. The Sun bear lives in tropical Southeast Asia with average temperatures of around 28 degrees above zero and almost 100% humidity. Both bear species are threatened in the wild by climate change and destruction of their habitat.

Polar bears and Sun bears are kept in many zoos around the world. Bears in captivity are exposed to different outside temperatures than they are ‘build for’ and used to all year round in the wild. In captivity, the upper temperature limit of Polar bears and the lower temperature limit of Sun bears are often exceeded. Until now, the effects of this on the species’ metabolisms have hardly been investigated.

This study by the University of Köln, funded by Bears in Mind between 2010-2012, looked into which behavioural and autonomic mechanisms for thermoregulation are available for the respective species, to examine to which degree behavioural regulation complement physiological mechanisms to minimise energy expenditure, and to determine the range of the thermoneutral zone for the respective species. The study took place in several European zoos during summer and winter conditions.