Albanian Bear Cub Starts New Life in Bulgaria

Dancing Bears Park Belitsa, a sanctuary in south-west Bulgaria for the rehabilitation of mistreated bears, has announced that its first Albanian resident arrived successfully from Tirana on May 4.

Riku, a two-year-old cub who was previously kept on a chain in the yard of а village house in the Scrapar region in southern Albania, before being rescued by the animal welfare organization Four Paws last November, has been placed in an isolation ward whie he adapts to his new surroundings.

"Riku was detached from wildlife as a baby, probably after his mother was killed by poachers. He has been treated like a dog," the manager of the rescue park, Dimitar Ivanov, told BIRN.

He explained that the owner of the cub was probably planning to sell him as a tourist attraction at Albania's seaside resorts, or use him as a dancing bear, but after the Albanian government banned the ownership of brown bears by private entities in 2015, this became impossible.

"He tried to get rid of him [the bear cub] but he came back twice and he was probably planning to kill him when Four Paws International found about him and rescued him together with the Albanian Environment Ministry," Dimitrov added.

From November onwards, Riku was kept at Tirana zoo while his travel documents for Bulgaria were being prepared.

He travelled over 20 hours through Albania, Macedonia and Greece until he finally reached his new home in Belitsa.

Founded in 2000 by the Four Paws and Brigitte Bardot foundations, the shelter, which is still operated by Four Paws, covers 120,000 square metres of natural forest.

It is a home to 26 bears who have been given the chance to recover from their miserable histories of exploitation as dancing bears, and to rediscover their natural...