An update on the bears rescued in February

This is an update on the four bears rescued from the Indo-Nepal border in February of this year. For the original news piece on the rescue, please click here to read it on our website.

Michael Oreo

Michael Oreo loves the fresh fruit basket
delivered to his den every morning!

Michael Oreo (formerly known as Oreo, but renamed Michael Oreo in honour of one of our biggest and best supporters) is three years old, and was rescued from the Nepalese border by Wildlife SOS in February this year. He weighed 86kg, and has put on a further 8kg since his arrival at International Animal Rescue’s Agra Bear Sanctuary. His keeper says the bear is a big fan of porridge and fruit, and particularly enjoys the sugarcane enrichment! He also enjoys playing with the ball in his den.

He was recently introduced to Goldie, one of the other bears seized in the raid. They get on really well, and enjoy playing together. Michael Oreo loves playing with water, and splashes it out of his drinking tub at every opportunity! He is surprisingly bold around his keeper, and does not seem worried by strangers.

This lovely bear is undergoing treatment for a mild respiratory tract infection as diagnosed from his initial chest radiograph and blood analysis results. Sadly his dental exam revealed that all his canine and incisor teeth are missing. This will be closely monitored by his keeper to ensure that he can eat properly and that any infection (as a result of the crude way his teeth were knocked out by poachers) is caught and treated swiftly.

Truffles

Truffles waits by the door of his den hoping
for a second breakfast!

Truffles is a mischievous and affectionate bear, aged around fifteen months old. He is still in quarantine after his dramatic rescue from the Nepalese border in February, along with three others.

Touchingly, Truffles was so ecstatic when the coarse rope - which had been forced through his soft muzzle by the poachers - was cut away, that he rubbed his nose along the ground before dashing outside into his run, running round and round as if to celebrate his freedom.

His keeper describes him as a happy-go-lucky bear, who greets him with “bear hugs” and nudges when he arrives each morning with breakfast. He is a bear who enjoys his food, and has grown very fond of the keeper who supplies it!

Fortunately, Truffles’ dental examination did not reveal any serious issues, and the visiting dental team from the UK (blog post to follow!) gave them a thorough clean. However, it was clear that there had been an attempt to break his teeth when he was very young, as his teeth have grown through with the tips broken off. This does not seem to have caused him any problems, though.

Truffles’ love of food has resulted in a weight gain of 5kg, putting him at 67kg. He loves porridge so much he puts his whole face into his bowl rather comically to make sure he doesn’t miss a single precious oat! He likes to play with fruit before munching it, and like, Michael Oreo, enjoys splashing in his water tub, treating it like a miniature swimming pool!

Unlike Michael Oreo, Truffles is quite wary of strangers, and prefers them to keep their distance.

Kandi

Kandi is doing well in quarantine

Kandi is believed to be around two years old, and was rescued alongside Michael Oreo, Truffles and Goldie in February. He is quite small for his age and has lots of growing to do, weighing only around 60kg. He is a friendly little bear, and enjoys lots of attention, making him very popular with the keepers.

His appetite is quite small, and he will often not finish his evening meal of porridge, but tucks into the fruit with gusto. He loves to splash around with his water, and when the keepers hose his den down, he tries to wrestle the hosepipe away from them to spray the water on himself!

Kandi has a painful infected injury to one of his claws, but it is responding well to treatment. It hasn’t dampened Kandi’s spirits, and he seems to be enjoying his temporary stay in quarantine.

Goldie

Goldie is blind, and suffered terribly at the hands
of his captors

Goldie has the saddest story of the four bears rescued in February. Aged just five years old, he is already blind in both eyes. He weighed 98kg on arrival, which for a male bear of his age is a little underweight. He displayed signs of tremendous hunger, yet he was not eating properly. Consequently, one of the on-site vets sedated him and did a full medical examination of him.

Thanks to this diligence, it was discovered that poor Goldie was suffering from a serious infection in a rotten upper canine tooth. His Kalendar “master” has been particularly brutal and careless towards Goldie, and he has probably suffered from unbelievable pain throughout his life. Fortunately, the dental team from the UK were in Agra in April, and removed this tooth. Goldie is now enjoying his diet of porridge and fruits, and has put on weight since the successful operation.

It is not yet known if his sight will be able to be restored or if the damage done to his eyes (probably by the rope through his nose rubbing on his optic nerve) is permanent. What we do know is that if it is possible to restore his sight, then our fantastic vet team will do it!

The rehabilitation and lifelong care of these four sloth bears will be expensive. If you can, please visit our website to make a donation. If you are unable to make a financial contribution, please share this post on Facebook, Twitter, via email and any other way you can think of to help raise awareness of the work we are doing to protect India's bears!

A Day in the Life of a Bear Keeper

When Sreekanta came to the Agra Bear Rescue Facility to repair the solar power fence, little did he know everything was going to change from that day on! He worked on the enclosures in the morning and during lunch he would watch keepers like Mubarak and the others feeding the bears and going about their chores. After seeing how everything was done and watching an old bear walk slowly to the keeper and rub against him, Sree, as he is lovingly called by the Wildlife SOS staff at the centre, suddenly knew that was exactly what he wanted to do with his life. So he signed up with Wildlife SOS to become a full time Paravet and a bear caretaker at the Agra Bear Sanctuary. Nine years have passed since then and he has more stories than most zoo keepers about the cubs he has hand raised, all of whom are large grown up bears now. 

I found out more about Sree’s life with the bears:

Q.1 – What are your daily duties? 
A- My day starts at the Wildlife SOS centre at 7am in the morning.  I start by washing out the bear dens and then, once they are clean, I bring large quantities of porridge from the kitchen for the bears. I then wash all the bear plates and pour the porridge out, putting in the boiled eggs, dates and a handful of chopped fruits. I keep a close watch on the amount of food and medicines that are supposed to be given to each bear because often even the smallest change in their food habits can alert us to something wrong with a bear. After feeding it is cleaning again and then I cut up branches, prepare food balls, honey logs and other such enrichments to be scattered and hidden in the enclosures. That’s my favourite part of the day.  After that it is fruit feeding, cleaning and then cooking the porridge for the evening feed. I also take care of para veterinary work and I enjoy the challenge of helping treat these beautiful animals!

Q.2- Every keeper has a few favourite animals, who are yours?
A- I really care about all the bears but I must confess that I do have a soft spot for the bear cubs I fostered with my own hands. I have hand reared many cubs and Layla, Giri, Guna, Nakul, Kuber, Chamundi, Anandi and Deva remain my favourite bears.

Q.3- How did you start taking care of the bear cubs? 
A- These were really small bear cubs rescued by Wildlife SOS from poachers who had stolen the cubs from the mothers. I was on the night shift the day the cubs arrived at the centre and I spent the entire night working with the vets Dr Ilayaraja and Dr Arun at the centre keeping an eye on the cubs. My curiosity made me work with the cubs but then I became very fond of them and I enjoyed looking after them, staying up all night and feeding them every three to four hours. Sometime the cubs get scared and need calming down. When I had to leave the next evening the bear cubs refused to let go of me and started screaming as if they did not want me to leave. This helped me make up my mind and after that I asked Wildlife SOS to give me the bear cub care duty in addition to my other duties. My work started initially with only two bear cubs but I genuinely loved caring for the little ones. So I went on to care for more and more cubs. It makes me feel like a responsible father.

Q.4- How many cubs have you hand reared?
A- I never had the time to count as the cubs kept me busy all the time, but I think I would have helped rear at least 20 of them. Their ages always varied so the amount of work was always different. There was never a boring moment.

Q-5- Are there any memorable incidents that come to your mind? 
A – One night Layla bear cub suddenly got very sick at about 2am and I sensed she was ill. I stayed up all night for several days to nurse her. I asked the vet to look at her and then this encouraged me to learn para-veterinary skills from the vets at the centre. When you watch these cubs at close quarters, you realise they have likes and dislikes, have moods that differ and each one of them has a different habit. Like Kuber, the elder cub at BBRC had a habit of sucking on Nakul’s ear and we never understood why until we realised that he would resort to this behaviour when he felt stressed.

Q.6- Have you gone on any rescue operations? 
A- Oh yes! I have gone on rescue operations and have helped transport bear cubs over thousands of kilometres by road and by air! It was never easy as the cubs have to be kept calm as any noise could stress them out.

Q-7- Apart from bears, have you taken care of any other animals? 
A – I have taken care of several animals other than bears – pangolin (ant eater), spotted deer fawn, hog deer fawn, baby monkey and several injured birds. But the bears are closest to my heart – they can be feisty or fearful, inquisitive or shy, calm or just a little bit crazy – but always fun to be around and never ever dull!

Written by Aishu Sudarshan