| 1 | Dancing Bears Park, Bulgaria |
During the Soviet Union era, eastern Europe was swept by a horrific phenomenon known as dancing bears. Kidnapped bears would be force fed vodka, have a metal ring inserted into their noses, and be pulled forward to “dance” on red hot burning embers while half-interested businessmen watched on. As their paws burned, a trainer would play a Bulgarian folk song on a violin, so that in the future, the mere sound would cause the bear to dance in panic.
The WWF declared this to be barbaric, and in 2007, the last 3 officially registered dancing bears were rescued – Mima, Misho and Svetla. Where did they end up? The Belitsa Sanctuary of course. This 8.6 hectare oasis is located at the foot of Mount Riga in Bulgaria, 180km south of Sofia, and it’s the place where formerly abused dancing bears go to regain their strength, or live out the rest of their days in peace if they’re unfit to be released. The Belitsa sanctuary is a place of grassy, flowery meadows and rugged mountain forests – it’s like somebody dropped a fence on a random section of bear habitat via helicopter. There’s even a swimming pool for the bears to play in.
The Belitsa sanctuary also houses dancing bears who were “rescued” before landing instantly in equally cruel conditions, including Gabriela, who was attacked by a fellow captive bear and now has only 3 legs! This video shows her walking beyond the fence in Belitsa, hopping around with another bear, but getting on with life well.
| 2 | Arosa Bärenland |
Arosa, Switzerland is the home of many chairlifts and FIS alpine skiing competitions, but what holidaymakers probably don’t realise is that there’s a family of brown bears living just over the hill. The Arosa Bear Sanctuary covers 2.8 hectares and is a relatively recent addition to the family, opening in August 2018 after being approved by the Arosa public in a landslide yes vote of 78% back in 2016.
The park occupies a gorgeous mountain habitat of high slopes, fir trees, and colourful meadow flowers, ripped straight from the Sound of Music, except with more bears. You can even take part in brown bear mini golf, although don’t get too excited – this is merely bear-themed mini golf rather than an interspecies tournament. One of Arosa Bear Sanctuary’s signature features is a wooden walkway high among the trees, which visitors can walk along to watch the bears from complete safety, while still feeling in the thick of the action.
Sadly, a tragedy hit the Arosa Bear Sanctuary back in September 2020 when former Slovenian circus bear Napa, who was its first ever resident back in 2018, suffered an epileptic fit. He was given medication which seemed to calm the symptoms, before having another fit on October 20th. Doctors announced that none of the available treatments had a better than minimal chance of succeeding, and hence, Napa was put down on November 4th 2020. Nevertheless, a new bear called Napolina arrived in December 2020, who joined Meido and Amelia, two Albanian born bears who showed up in January 2019.
| 3 | Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, Yellowstone |
Back in the “classic” era of Yellowstone park, nuisance bears were typically shot dead with rifles, or even lured to garbage bags filled with dynamites and exploded. That all changed in 1993 with the construction of the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre. Located in the Montana portion of western Yellowstone, the Centre’s goal is simply to house grizzlies that can no longer live in the wild for any reason. These could be orphaned bears who were never taught survival skills like foraging, or they could be garbage-addicted problem bears who keep on returning to human settlements.
Sam the coastal Alaskan grizzly was a classic example. He was orphaned when his mother mysteriously disappeared, and one day, he wandered into a fishing village where the adoring residents generously hand fed him. Unfortunately, this destroyed any chance of him surviving independently, and in 1996, Sam arrived at the Grizzly Discovery Centre, eventually growing to be 1050 pounds. Sow 101 had a similar backstory, and lived to the grand old age of 40 (a possible world record) before dying in 2020.
Until 1996, the Centre was owned by Ogden Entertainment, but when they threatened to close it, three of its managers cobbled together $1.7 million. The Grizzly Discovery Centre doesn’t have the most hectares, but the bears enjoy a natural habitat, including paddling pools, trees to climb, and even a gushing waterfall. The souvenir shop has the finishing touch that every nature-themed gift shop needs – a giant wooden sculpture of a grizzly bear attacking an elk.
| 4 | Al Ma’wa sanctuary, Jordan |
Unfortunately, zoos and the Middle East don’t generally go well together. From the painfully declawed lionesses of the notorious Rafah zoo in the Gaza strip, to the lone bear of Mosul zoo being terrorised back in 2017 by the missiles of the Syrian army (which admittedly wasn’t the zookeepers’ fault), their reputation is grim, but Al Ma’wa sanctuary in Jordan is a shining exception.
This bear sanctuary is a cooperative venture between Four Paws International and the Alisa Foundation, and covers a gigantic 140 hectares, located 48 miles north of the capital of Amman. Being located in Jordan, Al Ma’wa isn’t as green and luscious as the Belitsa sanctuary, but it’s no desert either. There’s trees and grasses aplenty – it’s akin to the lush Sierra Nevada region of California.
One of the sanctuary’s stars is a blond-coloured Syrian brown bear called Balou, who was born in 2002 and rescued from a cruel Jordanian zoo in October 2010, where he was beaten to entertain spectators. When he arrived at Al Ma’wa, he had lost the will to live, reacting to no amount of stimulation. But under steady care, and the temptation of a golden apple covered with honey and placed near a fence, Balou slowly but surely revived. As of 2021, he is an energetic, friendly bear who adores watermelon and coconuts and will happily pose for pictures with visitors. His friend is a fellow Syrian brown bear called Lula. Plot twist- this was the bear rescued from the Mosul zoo!
| 5 | Bear sanctuary Müritz |
Western Europe is full of cosy, scenic bear sanctuaries, but only one can lay claim to the title of biggest – Bear Sanctuary Müritz. This 16 hectare park is located in north-east Germany and has everything a bear could possibly dream of, including grasslands, forest glades, hillsides, and even a natural water course.
Half the time, it’s doubtful that the bears even realise they’re in a sanctuary. As of 2021, there’s 15 bears in total, with some bears living in groups and others preferring isolation. This is a less intensive park where instead of 24 hour attention, the bears simply roam the wild expanses, with the assistance of expert staff members who sometimes plant carrots, eggs, apples or nuts in hidden locations.
Like Belitsa, this isn’t a place for rehabilitating orphaned cubs; it’s a haven for adult bears rescued from horrific abuse. In November 2017, for example, two brother and sister bears called Pavle and Sylvia arrived, who were 2 of the last 3 Serbian circus bears ever (at least hopefully). The Serbian government banned wild animals for circus performances back in 2009, but somehow, the cruel operator of the Corona Zoo in Surbobran kept a menagerie of 24 animals in secret. Four Paws International stepped in and saved the bears from tiny cages, malnourishment, and long hours of boredom. Who was the third bear? None other than Napa of the Arosa Sanctuary.
Back in Bear Sanctuary Müritz, Pavle and Sylvia are now inseparable. Pavel regularly saves his sister when gets into scraps with the park’s 15 other bears.
| 6 | Bärenwald Arbesbach |
The first sanctuary ever established by Four Paws International, opening its gates back in 1998 approximately 150km to the west of Vienna. This is exactly what a bear sanctuary should be: a slice of scenic Austrian countryside taken to one side and handed over to bears. The altitude here is lower than Arosa, meaning that this bear oasis is much more forested and wooded.
At 1.4 hectares, Arbesback isn’t particularly huge, but like Müritz, it’s large enough for bears to roam freely and even dig their own dens. There’s no hiding in barns of straw for these bears. Sometimes, the bears will re-emerge in March to the delight of visitors, only for a typical late season snowstorm to blow in and cause the bears to vanish again. The trainers are mostly hands off, but they don’t shy away from throwing the bears oranges, nuts, tomatoes and pears.
The bears here are all rescued bears. Tom and Jerry, for example, were born in 1988 in the Czech Republic and soon found themselves purchased by a cruel bear tamer who forced them to perform in a “bear school”. In 1994, the brothers became circus bears, and travelled all over Europe in a tiny cramped wagon. Four Paws International spent 5 years negotiating for their release, before Tom and Jerry finally arrived in Arbesbach in September 2000. Sadly, Jerry was euthanised in June 2020 due to age-related joint pain, but as of 2021, Arbesback still has 5 healthy bears: Emma, Eric, Vinzenz, Bruma, and old Tom himself.
| 7 | Bear sanctuary Prishtina |
Despite the ever varying forms of brown bear cruelty, the good news is that a dedicated sanctuary seems to exist for each one. While the Müritz sanctuary specialises in circus bears, Bear Sanctuary Prishtina is a haven in Kosovo for former restaurant bears, a horrific practise which started after the mid-90s Balkans war. Innocent bears would be caught, cramped into tight cages, and positioned next to restaurants, so that potential customers could jeer at them and even feed them alcohol.
The bears wouldn’t leave their cages for months, and were often abandoned after the restaurant owners went bankrupt. Horrified NATO soldiers noticed these restaurant bears back in 2011, and over the next decade, 13 were rescued from Kosovo and transferred to Bear Sanctuary Pristina. This luscious bear hub is situated in a remote valley which alternates between thick green grass and dense woodland, covering 16 hectares.
A yellow wooden sign with a brown bear silhouette welcomes visitors, and the visitor building is sleek and snazzy. There’s paddling pools, climbing frames, and tall trees to climb, with the ultimate goal of testing the bears’ imaginations and keeping their brains sharp. If this footage of two bears cuddling up to each other is any indication, then they’re succeeding well.
“We are continually monitoring their behaviour, and we get so emotional when we see their improvements” said Afrim Mahmuti, executive director of Four Paws Kosovo. 19 bears live in this sanctuary, with one being Kassandra, the first ever restaurant bear to be confiscated back in March in 2013.
| 8 | Domazhyr Sanctuary, Ukraine |
The biggest bear sanctuary in Ukraine, founded in 2013 by Four Paws International. Domazhyr has a particularly high number of bears, with 21 as of 2021, and it’s not even at full capacity. Most of its residents are rescued from cruel Ukrainian bear baiting competitions, where bears are pitted against dogs, sometimes while strapped to a tree with their claws removed and forced to fight back by a man tugging an iron chain.
Ukraine only banned bear baiting in 2015, and the survivors living at Domazhyr include Masha, who was rescued from abuse at a hunting station in 2013 aged 7, and is still terrified of dogs. 660 pound Potab is another superstar, who spent years in a concrete-floored pit which was so cramped that he could barely stand upright. However, these tragic bears are now happy at Domazhyr – this video shows a bear demonstrating enough tree climbing skills to impress even a black bear. Domazhyr originally covered just 7.7 hectares, but saw a large expansion to 15 hectares in 2018, and promises yet another expansion in 2021, this time to a grand capacity of 30 bears.
Domazhyr is a particularly visitor friendly sanctuary. There’s an intricate network of footpaths, wooden bridges, and viewing platforms, passing through a heavily forested environment, all protected by fences of course. The park would be a fun place to explore even if there were no bears. That’s forgetting the souvenir shop, where you can purchase bear-themed shirts, bear-themed caps, bear-themed mugs, bear-themed bears – the list goes on.
| 9 | Libearty Bear Sanctuary, Zarnesti |
We’ve covered the largest bear sanctuary in Western Europe, and now it’s time for the largest bear sanctuary in all of Europe. Scratch that, it’s time for the largest bear sanctuary in the world – Libearty in Zarnestia, Romania, which covers 70 hectares and hosts 100 brown bears, with 110-120 rescued over its 15 year existence. This is a landscape of oak and hazel forests, approximately 45 minutes from the city of Brașov and not far from Bran Castle, the gloomy fortress which Bram Stoker based the original Dracula novel on.
It all started in 1997, when a women called Christina Lapis was horrified to notice 3 bears being kept in cages outside a restaurant in central Romania. At that moment, the seed of a dream was planted, and in 2006, Libearty finally opened.
With 100 bears, there’s an inevitable mixture. Most are happy, splashing in pools and even cuddling each other, but a few show signs of trauma and pace in circles despite the vast open spaces. The bears here are mostly reformed circus bears or dancing bears, but one bear called Betsy was rescued from an illegal Texas circus back in 2010, where her diet consisted of burnt out leftovers from a greasy fast food restaurant. She was shipped over to Libearty at the age of 24, where she underwent several operations to repair her teeth.
Libearty has another unique feature – a 24/7 webcam where you can watch bears splash in the pools and interact with each other. One curious fact, however, is that children under age 5 are banned from entry.
| 10 | Orphaned Bear Rescue Centre, Russia |
This is a very different kind of bear oasis. Instead of a simple shelter, the goal here is to train orphaned cubs up for their eventual return to the wild. The Orphaned Bear Rescue Centre is located 250km north of Moscow, in the small village of Bubonitsy. Its residents are abandoned bear cubs who are typically discovered just inches away from death, being bitten by dogs, severely emaciated, or suffering from severe hypothermia.
Luckily, the centre is led by Valentina Pazhetov, an esteemed Russian naturalist who wrote a popular book back in 1985 called My Friends Bears. The first weeks see the orphans bottle fed and monitored 24/7, often while weighing below 5 pounds, to mimic a cub’s early life in its mother’s den. After 3 months, the orphans are eased into a new diet of milky porridge mixed with eggs and vitamins, and encouraged to take their first unsupported steps. By month 7, the cubs are left to roam freely around a luscious green forest area, designed specially to sharpen up their future foraging skills.
After 9 months, the day finally comes: the orphaned bears are inspected for rabies, parasites, and diseases, carefully packed into a cage, and released into the big bad wild to follow their destiny. None of the cubs here are older than 2 years, and very few exceed 1 year. According to its founder Pazhetov, the Centre has boosted the micropopulation of bears in Russia’s Bryansk forest, which had previously plummeted to 6, but is now a booming 50.
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