Wildwood Trust: Rescue bears enjoy freedom without self-isolation

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Rescue bears enjoy freedom without self-isolation

While most people in the UK are in lock down and self-isolating, the two rescued brown bears Fluff and Scruff at the Kent Wildlife charity Wildwood Trust were let out of their 'self-isolation' this weekend, after 4 months of sleep.

Five years ago Fluff and Scruff were in a very sad and pitiful situation. Trapped in solitary confinement in small concrete cells in an outdated bear facility in Bulgaria, bred to be hunted. They weighed about half of what they should and despite being in the same facility, they had never seen each other or any other bear. They were anxious and frightened, and spent their days pacing their small spaces over and over.

Wildwood Trust rescued the bears and brought them to Kent, where generous funds from their supporters and the public allowed for the build of their huge 1.5-acre woodland home. Since then they have thrived and now lead happy and rich lives, loved and cared for by expert staff.

This weekend, after their 4 months of winter hibernation, they were once again let out into their woodland home.
The return of the bears is usually a big event for Wildwood with several hundred visitors entering a raffle for the chance to feed the bears and open their gate to let them into their big enclosure. It's a special day signifying the start of spring and the busy visitor season.

Wildwood Trust have launched an appeal to help the wildlife park survive the period of closure. Click here

The art of sleep
After a life of trauma, it was extremely important for the charity to give the bears the most natural life possible.
This included letting them sleep in the winter months, as they would in the wild. This was not an easy task at first and it has taken them many years to overcome their past and start acting truly like bears.
Getting the bears back into the natural rhythm of the seasons has been an important part of their rehabilitation process.

Bears in the wild don't go into full hibernation, but something called torpor. During torpor the bears go into a state of reduced activity and their metabolism slows down so that they can survive the winter with little food available.

In November, Fluff and Scruff were brought into a smaller enclosure with a lovely warm sleeping spot. As it was getting colder, they were naturally slowing down and getting very sleepy and after a 'last meal' of cabbage and parsnip, the bears started 4 months of torpor, only interrupted by little walks in the enclosure on particularly warm days.

The bears have not been fed at all for 4 months and have only eaten small amounts of grass. Naturally the bears have lost a lot of weight in the process and they were extremely keen to get out and forage.

Bears access their big woodland

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Bears during torpor

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Foraging for food

In the wild bears live on an extremely varied diet and they will spend hours searching for fruit and berries, insects, roots, grass, carcasses and other things.
This natural behaviour is very much mimicked at Wildwood, where scattered feeds are used on a daily basis.

Bear keeper Paul Wirdnam explains:
"We will hide eggs, jam trails, and a variety of enrichment spread in the large enclosure every morning. Fish was slowly introduced to the diet mid-summer for about 8 weeks to replicate the salmon run in the wild and help them put on some winter fat. We are always trying new foods to expand the bears' diet" .

On top of that the bears will themselves spend hours foraging for berries, nuts, roots and leaves which all grow naturally as part of their big woodland enclosure.

When open, visitors to Wildwood Trust can come close to the bears via a long rope bridge stretching across the enclosure.

View and download footage of the bears

CEO Paul Whitfield tells the story of the annual bear release

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Contact:

Wildwood Trust: +44(0)1227 712 111

Julie Luna Bayer: julie@wildwoodtrust.org or 07453 497086

Bear Facts

Ursus arctos arctos
Once native to the UK but hunted to extinction around 500AD , the European brown bear is a majestic animal that can weigh up to 350kg and measure up to 2.5m in length from nose to tail.

Brown bears are omnivores (meaning to eat both plants and animals) and are typically found in forested areas where they feed on fruits, roots, vegetation, small and large mammals, fish and invertebrates. Despite eating meat and fish, most of their diet (around 75%) is made up of plant and vegetable matter.

Brown bears are powerfully built with short, thick limbs, a big, heavily built body and a distinct shoulder hump, which is due to the large muscles needed for digging up roots and tubers. Their long straight claws are specially adapted for digging and can measure up to 10cm.

Wildwood bears
At Wildwood we have 2 brown bears which we rescued in November 2014 from shocking neglect in a disused bear breeding station in Bulgaria.
The bears were born at the centre and had lived their entire lives in tiny barren concrete cells. They had never experienced anything other than this life, were desperately underweight and displaying signs of serious stress and anxiety.

Wildwood's supporters helped us to raise over £100,000 to rescue the bears and bring them to the park.
They are now thriving in their new woodland home where they can experience as natural a life as possible and have the chance to learn and express their natural behaviour.

Wildwood Trust, Herne Common, Herne Bay, Nr Canterbury, Kent CT6 7LQ

Registered Charity No. 1093702

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ABOUT WILDWOOD

Wildwood Trust opened in 1999 as a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife, and was established as a registered charity in 2002. Wildwood is Kent's best British wildlife park. Home to over 200 native animals, past and present and set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland where visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers plus many more.

As one of the leading British animal conservation charities in the UK, Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain's most threatened wildlife. Wildwood Trust have taken part in many ground-breaking conservation programmes to date, which include, saving the water vole, using wild horses to help restore Kent's most precious nature reserves, bringing the extinct European beaver back to Britain and returning the hazel dormouse & red squirrel to areas where they have been made extinct.