Nepal’s last known dancing bears are rescued

NEPALI authorities have rescued the country’s last known “dancing bears”, officials said yesterday, ending the medieval tradition of abuse of the beasts for entertainment.

The Himalayan nation banned performing bears back in 1973 but the illegal practice – a traditional occupation for some street performer communities – lingered on in parts of its southern region.

Police and animal charities said they spent more than a year hunting the captors of the sloth bears before they were traced to the Rautahat district near the border with India on Tuesday.

“We received information that they were in our area and managed to rescue the bears,” district police chief Yagya Binod Pokharel said.

Dancing bears are captured and bought as cubs and taught to dance on their hind legs. Their snouts are pierced with a heated rod so they can be con- trolled by the tug of a rope or chain.

Animal activists said the rescued bears – 19-year-old male Rangila and Sridevi, a 17-year-old female – showed signs of trauma such as cowering, pacing and paw-sucking.

“We are thrilled that the last two known Nepali dancing bears have been rescued from their lifetime of suffering . . . our hard effort and dedication has helped to bring an end to this illegal tradition in Nepal,” said Manoj Gautam of the Jane Goodall Institute of Nepal, which worked with the police and World Animal Protection to rescue them.

The bears were located by tracking the owners’ mobile phones.

The bears are being cared for by the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal’s largest such reserve.

In neighbouring India, the practice came to an end in 2012, decades after an official ban in 1972.