June 13 was a lucky day for Monica and Mia. The two female bears, who for more than half a year shared one of the Training Area enclosures, have been released into a final enclosure. The initiation and habituation period ended with the pair „trained” enough to share the nine-hectare third enclosure with the other 18 bears already already living there.
Once the move was decided on, the sanctuary team came up with a noninvasive strategy to relocate Monica and Mia. The workers created a corridor to guide the bears from the tunnel between the Training Area and the third enclosure Mini (now in recovery) to the gate that separates the Third Mini of the Third enclosure. To urge them to pass through this corridor, a fence was set up in the Training Area to divide their territory in half.
The second part of the strategy was food: it was scattered at the opening of the tunnel and along the corridor to show the ladies the desired direction.
For two weeks, human intervention was avoided in the hopes that the bears would find the courage to explore. Although they circled the tunnel entrance, the two friends didn’t seek “the light” at the end of it. The fear of change – great in people, too – unearthed sad memories of the life they left behind, so the animals were resigned to remaining at the entrance. Finally, a veterinarian gave them general anesthesia, and the bears were carried in the cup of the excavator to the new area.
Monica has already started exploring, and the little Mia, being fearful, has perched in an oak tree, where she can carefully examine the vast space of the third enclosure.
