ROMANIA: Libearty Bear Sanctuary

Romania has the largest population of wild brown bears in Europe outside of Russia.

It is estimated that there are over 10,000 brown bears, found primarily in the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania.

Sadly, at one time it was common to see brown bears kept in cages as tourist attractions outside of restaurants, gas stations and hotels, or, dressed up performing in zoos, or, in cages as private family novelties.

When Romania joined the EU in 2007 bear captivity in Romania was banned.

Luckily, many of those captive bears ended up in sanctuaries like the 135 hectares (over 330 acres) Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Padureni, which now houses over 130 rescued bears in large forested enclosures.

Cages like these are what some of them had lived in for years. 

When the rescued bears arrive at the sanctuary, they are kept separate from the other bears in order to let them “decompress”.

The males are neutered to reduce fighting and to ensure that no new cubs are born. 

They are then slowly released into the different enclosed areas according to their compatibility with the other bears. 

Bears, can dig and climb trees, so the fence and the trees by the fence are electrified.  

This enclosure had a mom with her cubs. Because towns can be easy sources of food for the bears, this family had become too habituated in town. This caused conflict between the townspeople and the bears. Other relocation opportunities were not available, so the mother and her cubs were fortunate to be moved to the sanctuary. They are kept separate from the other bears, and in 2 or 3 years when the cubs are ready to leave their mom, they will be integrated with the other bears.

The sanctuary can also become home to orphaned cubs. This cub was found alone by the side of the road. Our guide told us the cub is always up in the tree because he must have been traumatized as an orphan. 

One bear came back to Romania from a Ukrainian zoo. Another one was returned back to Romania after having lived in a private home in Texas. Looking at those nails I can say I would not one around my home as a "pet". What were people thinking!?!?

Food is delivered by truck and is thrown over the fence. It consists of a diet of fruit, bread and fresh items from grocery store the day before the expiry date. 

The delivery time is always a bit different, but they know the sound of the truck’s engines and show up in advance waiting for their food.

Or maybe they know the sound of tourist's cameras clicking and contemplate an alternative menu for the day...

The average age of a bear in the wild is about 20 years. At the sanctuary they live much longer due to a reliable food supply and veterinary care. The average cost per bear for food and veterinary care is approximately €6,000 per year (Depending on the exchange rate, that is about US$7,000 per year.) There are about 130 bears at the sanctuary, so you can do the math.

Outside of the sanctuary, human-bear conflicts are rising. As forest habitat fragments, bears increasingly descend into mountain towns, raiding garbage, orchards and livestock. Interestingly, as we were driving the next day, this alert came on our phone. Fortunately, they gave the warning in both Romanian and English.

And then, we found this scene on the highway in the Carpathian Mountains.

For the cubs sake, we hoped that mama was nearby. And then, there she was, on high alert.

But, we also know that there is a reason for the expression to be wary of a "Mama Bear" when angered.

Needless to say, NEVER feed or get out of your car around bears. We just drove by slowly, I had my phone out and took some pictures and then we continued. We felt very fortunate to see the bears in the wild after seeing them in the sanctuary. 

 However, this bear obviously did not get the memo to stay out of town.

It looks to me like he is expecting table service.