Bears' Print Nov 2024

Please enjoy our brand new Bears' Print newsletter with news of rescues, developments at our sanctuaries, education and research initiatives, fabulous fundraising events and an inspiring message from our CEO Matt Hunt. Read or download the full newsletter by clicking here or highlights below.

MESSAGE FROM MATT HUNT - CEO

Dear supporters and friends,

This past year has been, without a doubt, a year of superlatives for all of us at Free the Bears, in many ways being the busiest, hardest and toughest of years but at the same time being the most productive, proudest and most rewarding of years too.

Historically the most bears we’ve ever seen rescued in a single year in Southeast Asia was 27 bears (23 in Cambodia and 4 in Laos) way back in 2005. The arrival of Laos Rescue 153, a tiny female sun bear cub with a horrific snare wound to her hind leg on 29th September broke that record, being our 28th rescued bear of 2024. As is so often the case, we had little time to note the occasion after receiving the first video message showing this poor girl dragging her leg behind her and clearly in considerable pain. Our team swung into action with vet Meng putting together an emergency bag and jumping onto the first plane available from Luang Prabang to Pakse in order that he could administer pain relief and begin treatment as soon as possible. We know from experience that any cub showing such signs of pain is highly likely to have been caught in a snare trap, the results of which might not be immediately visible but can quickly turn to deadly infections.

While Meng was in the air our rescue team were loading transport crates and checking the vehicle for the long 18 hour drive south, leaving at sunrise to make the most of the daylight hours as they traversed the mountainous roads that historically kept Luang Prabang isolated as its own kingdom. One of the forestry officers taking care of the cub in the interim had recently returned from joining a two-week residential training workshop at our sanctuary, meaning she was familiar with the team and able to provide immediate care to the cub with guidance from our team. Within two hours of our team arriving and transferring the cub onto our vehicle ready for the long journey home we had another phone call from our government partners in Vientiane, telling us that another cub (this time a moon bear) had been found in a private home, meaning a slight diversion to collect the second cub and send one of the rescue team home on the train to make space for the unexpected passenger! Ultimately both cubs were safely delivered back to Luang Prabang late at night, with emergency surgery quickly scheduled for the sun bear cub.

Such stories as this are sadly all-too-frequent, and yet I continue to be blown away by the commitment of everyone towards the welfare of these bears which have fallen victim to the illegal wildlife trade. Our team never hesitate to put their hands up to join a rescue mission (despite a good portion of them suffering from travel sickness), telling me it makes them proud to know that they can play a part in removing bears from horrific situations and then watching their journey of recovery back at the sanctuary. This week, after a suitable period of recovery for the sun bear cub, we’ve all been enjoying watching these two cubs being introduced to one another at the Cub Nursery, while collectively marveling at how big the cubs from the March rescue have grown as they move onto their new homes within the sanctuary. It breaks our hearts to think about what would have happened to the mothers of these cubs, but at least once with us they are in a place of love and safety.

All of this is only possible because of supporters like you who allow us to do this work, so from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of everyone at Free the Bears, I want to thank you all for trusting us with your life-saving donations which enable us to offer hope to bears such as these. Wishing you all the happiest of holiday seasons and all the very best wishes for the New Year ahead,

Love and bear hugs,

Matt Hunt

2024 has been our largest year of bear rescues in 29 years, placing massive strain on our limited resources. December is a key fundraising month for Free the Bears, determining how much impact we’ll have in the coming year. If you are able to, please give generously this giving season, your donations have a huge and enduring impact.

UPDATE FROM CAMBODIA

After over a year and a half with no rescues, in recent months we’ve rescued multiple bears. In June, a small male moon bear cub that had been found in a snare trap by villagers in the south of Cambodia was delivered into our care. The cub, weighing only 7kg, had already lost part of his front left paw to the snare injury. Nervous and traumatised at first, he is slowly building confidence, helped along by 2 young moon bears rescued just weeks later. Cambodia Rescues #219 and #220, a brother and sister, were confiscated from Chinese nationals keeping them as trophy ‘pets’ in the southern coastal town of Sihanoukville. Estimated to be less than a year old and weighing just over 10kg, the cubs are all well on the road to recovery under the watchful eye of our expert cub carer, Mr Heng. In late October, our friends at Wildlife Alliance and government partners from Forestry Administration were able to help rescue a very special bear. While moon bears normally have black coats, Cambodia Rescue #221 is a golden moon bear, reminiscent of our famous golden girl Brandy, a beautiful and gentle golden moon bear we rescued in 1999, who enjoyed 25 years of loving care before tragically passing away in August of this year. Brandy was known and loved by so many people around the world, it was quite a surprise to rescue another rare golden moon bear so soon after losing her. Slightly darker than Brandy and overweight from a poor diet and lack of exercise, we were told this girl was taken as a cub and caged for around 6 years. We’re confident she’ll make a full recovery and live a healthy, happy, enriched life at our sanctuary.

Following the completion of Bear House 9, which is already filled with happy new residents, our construction team upgraded the Cub Nursery and Quarantine, and new facilities were added to the Wildlife Hospital. They’re putting finishing touches on our Research Centre and building our Prerelease Stage 2 facility, a semi-wild habitat, isolated from humans, to house potential future release candidates.

In June we received a visit from wildlife supervet Dr Romain Pizzi, to help with some special cases, and in September Dr Ana returned to help us for 6 months, including sharing skills with our new Vietnamese vet, Dr Vi.

Our ACE team has been extremely busy with Bear Care Tours and school visits from both local and international students, as well as international youth groups. We’ve had to expand our team (welcome Mean) and have received great feedback from the visitors about how much the students enjoyed visiting and learning about the bears, and how inspired they are to get more involved in conservation, music to our ears.

Our research team has also kept busy, with a published paper proposing that sun bears are the only bear species to reproduce year round, and coordinating efforts to create a safe zone for wildlife releases in the National Park close to our Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary (where macaques and five leopard cats rescued as kittens have been released). The camera traps show there has been a complete cessation of hunting in this area, which is very good news. Researchers Chiara and Zack are progressing release initiatives, investigating potential release sites, conducting observational studies and testing tracking equipment. We’re a long way from releases at this point, but, the important (and time-consuming) research and groundwork has commenced. The research team were pleased to join the Wildlife Animal Rescue Network conference, giving a presentation about our macaque release project alongside presentations about our live-in wildlife care workshops for government officials, the world’s largest bear cub rescue, and our new partnership with other rescue organisations to share resources and specialist equipment.

Our vet Dr Sorphea and her father, expert cub carer Mr Heng, have featured in a beautiful short film which premiered at a recent film festival. Thank you for your kind support, happy holidays.

UPDATE FROM LAOS

You may recall from our last update that by May we’d rescued 23 bears in 2024, already a record! 18 of the 23 were tiny cubs weighing less than 4kg, all rescued within 3 days of March. 17 of the 18 survived and have graduated from the Cub Nursery, with several now weighing over 40kg, more than 10 times their arrival weight. Since May, the rescues have continued - in June a male sun bear cub and in July, 3 female moon bears, 2 subadult and an adult. Sadly, the adult bear passed away shortly after rescue. There was a brief break in rescues in August, which provided an opportunity to move groups of bears into our new Bear Houses 8 and 9. 25 bears moved to beautiful new homes - 2 year old cubs moved from the Stage 2 Cub Nursery to make room for the cubs rescued in March, and a large mixed gender group of 3-4 years old moved to Bear House 9 and were separated into male and female groups (to avoid any pregnancies). Sadly, we lost a male moon bear, Barney, and red panda, Mei Li.

 In September we learnt of a tiny sun bear cub with a horrific snare wound in the far south of Laos. As our team drove the 1,000km to reach her, news came of another orphaned moon bear cub found in the Laos capital, Vientiane (we believe she likely escaped captors trying to illegally trade her). We were able to rescue both cubs, leaving one team member behind to make room for the second cub. Although her snare injuries led to a full limb amputation (special thanks to Dr Taylor from Perth Zoo for his help), the sun bear will make a full recovery and be able to live a safe and healthy life.

During the past 6 months we also rescued 5 leopard cat kittens and a tiny endangered baby gibbon. A group of pig-tailed macaques and the leopard cats were able to be released back to the forest from our new wildlife release station. This project involves community engagement and the creation of community wildlife rangers, to help ensure the success of the releases. With so many rescues, our construction team has forged ahead with many projects, 2 new bear houses were completed (and filled already), 2 new Primate Fields completed (one filled with 5 bear cubs due to a lack of alternative space) and a new enclosure for our Asian golden cat. At our Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre, a new bamboo viewing area was built as part of a sustainable construction workshop (thanks to BTI), while Bear House 3 was renovated. Our next major project will be Bear Houses 10 and 11, already desperately needed.

The vet team has been busy delivering a wildlife medicine course to vet students from the National University, hosting two 6th year students for a 3 month internship, visiting Vietnam to provide training and bear health checks, presenting at a conference in Australia and attending a parasitology course. Thanks to vets Dr Arran and Dr Calum for their help. Several of our animal care and education team visited rescue centres in Vietnam to share skills and we’ve hosted government officials from the Science and Technology Department, a team from the US Embassy, the British Ambassador, keeper teams from Perth and Taronga Zoos (who raised $10,000 prior to their visit, huge thanks) and a World Expeditions photography group from Australia (special thanks to Alex Cearns). Our ACE team trained tour guides and local conservationists and we hosted the annual Wildlife Animal Rescue Network conference, with 30 organisations from 15 countries attending the 3 day event.

With so many rescued cubs rapidly growing and limited space, cubs have moved into our Prerelease Stage 1 facility, a walled enclosure similar to the Stage 2 Cub Nursery, designed to allow us to care for bears with minimal human contact. This allows the bears to retain a wariness of humans, important for release candidates if they are to survive in the wild. We don’t expect the current set of cubs to be released, but, they are providing useful learnings for the future. What a year it has been, none of these achievements would have been possible without your support. Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season.

UPDATE FROM VIETNAM

We continue to reach out to bear bile farmers to encourage them to hand over bears that have been caged for decades. Sadly, no bears were handed over in the past 6 months, leaving our population of rescued bears stable, aside from the sad loss of Song, a sun bear we rescued in 2011. When we rescued Song, she appeared to be an elderly bear, partially blind with excess skin and droopy lips. Defying all expectations, she went on to enjoy over 13 years of loving care at our Cat Tien Bear Sanctuary and will be missed by all.

While we wait for new rescues, we continue to improve facilities at the sanctuary to ensure the bears enjoy the best possible life. New climbing platforms have been installed and several elderly bears moved to our recently refurbished bear rescue centre, which they love. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Tyler, and a group of eager volunteers who visited in June and July, have been devising new and innovative enrichment puzzles, which not only challenge the complex minds of the bears, but also encourages them to climb and explore, keeping their claws healthy as well maintaining strength and mobility, important for older bears.

As part of our efforts to ensure the best possible health care for the bears, we’re proud to have hired our first Vietnamese vet - welcome Dr Vi. Dr Vi recently spent time with the vet team in Cambodia and was then joined in Vietnam by vets from our Laos team to perform health checks and share skills. The team from Cambodia will again visit in the coming month for more health checks on elderly bears with health issues.

It’s not only the vet team that ensures the bears have the best possible care, our animal care team also play a vital role. Earlier in the year they conducted a general welfare audit of all the bears under our care, ensuring we’re able to track and continuously improve welfare for each individual bear. This already resulted in new enrichment puzzles and changes to enclosure furniture and climbing platforms, which leads to healthier and happier bears. Even something as simple as a visual barrier can help improve the welfare of an animal that may be prone to stress from the site of a road or other bears.

In September, members of the animal care team joined colleagues from Laos for a useful visit to wildlife rescue centres in the north of Vietnam, to learn about their work and share husbandry skills. The team also participated in a positive reinforcement training workshop upon arrival back to the sanctuary, training the bears to present their paws and show their teeth, important for monitoring the health of the bears. The bears seem to really enjoy this activity and it’s incredible to see how quickly they are able to learn (encouraged by treats, of course). As construction is on hold pending government approvals, the team have been busy with general maintenance, and also repairing fences after a huge tree toppled over in a storm during rainy season.

As part of our efforts to increase awareness of the plight of the bears and conservation in general, we’ve been hosting school groups and Bear Care Tours for visitors to the national park, an initiative we hope to develop with the addition of Nhung to our team, welcome Nhung. We’re also excited to have partnered with Cat Tien Jungle Paths, an annual trail-running adventure race through the national park, to create the Free the Bears Race For Wildlife, which we hope will raise awareness amongst Vietnamese of the beautiful and precious wildlife of Cat Tien National Park, as well as raise funds which will be donated to the ranger teams who patrol the park, helping to upgrade ranger stations and provide essential equipment such as camera traps, GPS units, sleeping bags and mosquito nets.

We’ll continue our fight to convince bile farm owners to hand over caged bears and will meet with the government in the coming months to develop a strategic plan to rescue more bears. Thank you for your support, we wish you happy holidays!

ETHICAL CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

Go ethical this holiday season & help preserve our precious planet while helping threatened bears. We have various Gifts on our website including Cub Care Kits and enrichment items. The gifts go directly to the bears at the sanctuaries and you’ll be able to create a beautiful bear-themed e-card to email to someone you care about, with your personal message, details of the gift and a link to a video. You can schedule when the e-card is delivered - get your Christmas shopping done early! Our 2025 wall calendar with 13 rescued cubs also makes a great ethical gift, sure to brighten every day of 2025. Visit FreetheBears.Org

Another great way to pick up a present for yourself or a loved one is at The Beary Pawsome Auction. There's an eclectic collection of donated items, travel experiences, art, wine and more (many of which have an animal theme). Most items & experiences are for Australia (UK also features) and shipping is possible for some items. This is a short duration online auction - only until December 1st - please visit the website & make your 'bid for bears' today, all proceeds help the bears & you may find a great bargain, Use links: tinyurl.com/bearypawsomeauction or https://oktion.com.au/event-details/783

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS - THANKS TO YOU ALL

Without the courage and actions of our founder Dr Mary Hutton OAM, over 1,000 bears would be in a far worse situation. The bears we have rescued have been given expert loving care in beautiful sanctuaries and the lives of thousands of people throughout Asia and the rest of the world have been positively impacted. But Mary did not do this alone - along the journey she's had an amazing support network of like-minded, caring, generous and loving supporters. Yes that's YOU we're talking about. Here are just some of the wonderful recent achievements. Thank you to everyone for your support.