Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
That’s a real bear hug!
An emotional video has revealed the moment two bears embraced after 16 years spent alone in separate concrete pits.
Milcho and Gosho were rescued from squalid conditions in Bulgaria and given a new home at Wildwood animal park in Herne.
And after 12 months of rehabilitation in Kent, they were finally introduced to each other as park staff watched on with bated breath.
The touching footage shows the pair cuddling in what is thought to be their first contact with a fellow bear since birth.
But the risky meeting was fraught with danger, with a vet on standby should it not have gone to plan.
Wildwood chief executive Peter Smith said: “It’s been a year in the making and was something we had to do to make them healthy bears again.
“After enduring lives of terrible neglect and suffering, the bears have required many months of costly care and rehabilitation to bring them back to ful l physical health.
“Introducing them to each other could have been a disaster, and all the staff were on tenterhooks, but we couldn’t be more pleased with how it went.
“Now the bears can enjoy the company of each other and this is a significant step to their full mental recuperation.”
The brown bears, who could possibly be cousins or brothers, are thought to be aged about 16 and had spent their whole lives in solitary confinement.
They were bred to be hunted by the former Communist Party elite and then by wealthy oligarchs.
When Bulgaria joined the European Union they were forced to stop the barbaric bloodsport, but it left the bears abandoned in desolate concrete pits, with local people doing their best to help feed them with dried porridge.
They were rescued and taken to Wildwood after a £120,000 fundraising drive.
Experts at the park have worked tirelessly to restore both their physical and mental health, with each bear initially kept in separate night enclosures.
They had access at different times to a 1.5-acre woodland enclosure, which they will now share after proving to be inseparable.
Mr Smith said: “It’s another milestone achieved in their long road to recovery. They didn’t know what is was to have a life before, but we now hope they can live out their years in happiness and contentment.”
Visi tors to Wildwood during the Easter holidays will be able to catch a glimpse of the bears playing together.
To see the video visit www. kentonline. co.uk