Russian Grizzly Bear Rehabilitation Project Up-date demonstrates that there has been successful rehab of grizzlies for years. The three newly orphaned grizzly cubs in Banff are atleast 9mos old and if healthy they should be left alone to grow up wild. If they were sick or injured they should be rescued until healthy. No organization should be allowed to exploit these cubs for profit and personal gain under the guise of compassion. This would not be a compassionate act and would cause undue stress and possible death to these older orphans.
Sincerely,
Barbara Murray
BC Bear Advocates
North Vancouver
IFAW helps rescue six orphan bear cubs from Russian bear hunt
15 March 2005
An IFAW-sponsored sanctuary has helped rescue a record six orphan grizzly cubs from one litter - victims of the annual Russian bear hunt.
The Orphan Bear Cubs Project in the Tver region of Russia received the four male and two female cubs after their mother was killed in a legal hunt in the Novgorod Region of North-West Russia last month. Hunters brought the young cubs - just 6 or 7 weeks old - into the centre, which runs a well-respected rehabilitation programme for orphaned bears.
During the winter months in Russia, wealthy hunters pay more than US$2,000 each to rouse brown bears from hibernation and kill them. The hunters’ dogs dig and bark at the den and wake the bear while the hunters wait nearby with rifles poised. When the bear climbs out of the den, the hunters shoot without knowing if it is male or female. Each year, hundreds of cubs are left motherless with little chance of survival. Many are simply left to die.
“Though the hunters claimed they were sure that it was a male bear,” says Professor Valentin Pazhetnov, a Russian scientist who works at the IFAW Orphan Bear Cubs Project, “an experienced hunter would have recognized a female because, unlike the male, she will not leave the lair but stay with the cubs till the last opportunity”.
When found the cubs weighed just two kilos each. Their malnourished state probably the result of the large litter size that meant the mother’s milk supply was not large enough to feed all six cubs. On arrival at the centre the cubs at first refused to suckle warm milk from the bottle, although thanks to round-the-clock care they now drink 200 ml of milk five times a day.
“Six bear cubs in one litter is extremely rare,” says Masha Vorontsova, director of IFAW Russia. “According to Russian sources there was only one report of a female bear with six embryos at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it didn't necessarily mean that she would have given birth to them.
“We will carry out DNA testing to confirm the cubs are all siblings later this year once the animals are older,” Ms Vorontsova added.
It is hoped that once rehabilitated, the cubs will eventually be successfully released into protected forest reserves where they can live a natural life.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
· IFAW campaigns for an end to the Russian bear hunt and has supported this unique rescue and rehabilitation center since 1995. A total of 95 bear cubs have been successfully released back into the wild. At present 13 cubs aged six to eight weeks old are at the center. They will be released to the wild in August 2005.
· IFAW funds the work of a Russian scientist, Professor Valentin Pazhetnov, who has dedicated his life to rehabilitating brown bears. Professor Pazhetnov and his family live at the Clean Forest Biological Station 350 kilometers northwest of Moscow where they bottle-feed and care for orphan bear cubs. When the bears are old enough, they are fed once a day, then left to wander the forest freely and forage for themselves.
· In some areas of Russia, and in Western and Eastern Europe, brown bears are already extinct. The bears being hunted in Russia are from the last healthy population in the world.
For media-related inquiries, contact:
Rosa Hill
email: rhill@ifaw.org
phone: 020 7587 6702
The rescued cubs were approximately 40-50 days old, born at the very beginning of January. © IFAW/Sergey Pazhetnov