Back home in darkest Peru, the real-life Paddington Bear, thanks to MoS readers
CHOLITA, the real-life Paddington bear rescued from a horrific ordeal in a circus, is back in the jungle – thanks to Mail on Sunday readers.
Horrified by her plight, readers helped fund a spacious new home in a wildlife reserve deep in the Amazon rainforest.
Cholita endured years of abuse at the circus in the north-west of Peru with her claws cut down to stumps and her teeth deliberately broken to make her less dangerous to handle. She also lost most of her black fur due to the stress of being kept in a cage.
Last week, Cholita made an extraordinary 1,000-mile journey by road and river to her new home in the Taricaya Ecological Reserve in the Peruvian rainforest.
Her purpose-built half-acre enclosure, which is carved out of her natural jungle habitat and includes a cave and a pool, was paid for out of £30,000 of donations to Animal Defenders International (ADI) after we featured her story in March. The enclosure will enable her to live in her natural environment for the first time since she was captured nearly 25 years ago. Like her marmalade-loving relative Paddington from ‘deepest, darkest Peru’, Cholita is a ‘spectacled’ or Andean bear, an endangered species native to the region. Also on the journey were Mufasa, a 20-year-old mountain lion; woolly monkeys Mr Rojas, Joan and Baby, spidermonkeys Pepe Lucho and Lily; and James, a military macaw, all rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.
Provisions were made to ensure a comfortable two-day journey for Cholita. She was fed her natural diet of apples, bananas and corn, her cage was covered to avoid her becoming agitated and she was given straw to build a nest.
Yesterday, after arriving at Taricaya Ecological Reserve, she was released into her 82ft x 50ft enclosure.
As members of the ADI team looked on, she nudged forward, sniffing the earth with every step.
For ten minutes she barely moved, but soon she was exploring, investigating her bathing pool and stretching out against tree trunks.
ADI hope to raise enough money for three more rescued spectacled bears.
ADI president Jan Creamer said: ‘We thank all Mail on Sunday readers for helping to bring Cholita home – their contributions have helped ADI rescue her, nurse her back to health, transport her on her thousand-mile journey, and construct this wonderful habitat for her in the forest where she will be safe for the rest of her life’.