ALL DONE

I apologize for not writing anything sooner. In September last year I thought it would be a matter of weeks before I could make a short video on Bonnie and the girls enjoying the forest in the large enclosure, but it’s been almost five months now since Bonnie’s been with Desi and Hilda and I still don’t have any footage of Bonnie in the forest, let alone of him playing with the girls in the trees.

Bonnie is the male sun bear who arrived at the OFI care centre in June 2014 and who was introduced to Desi and Hilda on 31^st August. The three bears became friends right away but when Bonnie went into the small enclosure he got a bad shock on the electric fence and refused to go back in. More than 3 months were necessary for Bonnie to slowly venture back into the small enclosure and another month for him to feel comfortable in it.

Now that Bonnie is confident that nothing is going to happen to him in the small enclosure he is hesitantly going into the main enclosure. He goes in for a few seconds at a time, staying close to the door. He sniffs the air, looks around and comes running back into the cage, even if Desi and Hilda are just a few feet away as if inviting him to come play with them.

Bonnie needs time…  and my next video update will thus have to wait. Sorry about that.

Requiem for Kevin

Thank you to all of you who have made a donation for this project and who continue to do so. Your help is greatly appreciated and still needed to be able to pay the final bills.

The construction of the main enclosure’s wall is now in its finishing stages, another few days are needed to finish the plastering of the wall and the making of a pool for the bears to enjoy when it gets too hot. Then there is still quite a lot of work needed to put up the wires for the electric fencing and to get the electric system up and running.

Unfortunately, I have very sad news: Kevin, the big strong male sun bear we see on all the videos of the project, died on May 11th. He was gone in less than 24 hours from showing the first clinical symptoms. Acute necrotic pancreatitis it seems, there was nothing we could do....  After a life behind bars, Kevin died just a few weeks before being able to enjoy a bit of forest and some space. Fate is so unfair sometimes. At least the girls, Desi and Hilda are doing well. The enclosure will be for the two of them now.

Here is a short video to honour Kevin’s memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HicYy5zaGCA&feature=youtu.be

Latest video update

The construction of the enclosure is going well. A warm thank you to all those who continue to support this project. Please have a look at the latest video update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klTs7-pnlps

New video update

Thank you very much to all of you who have been donating for the construction of the main enclosure. Every dollar and every euro are greatly appreciated. It’s thanks to you that Desi, Hilda and Kevin will soon be able to access the forest in the back of the small enclosure. But there is still lots to do and lots of bills to pay, so I hope you can continue helping.

Please have a look at the latest video update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8CN0TPPh1c

New video update

Please have a look at the 3 minute video update on the construction of the main enclosure and on the 3 bears in their newly finished feeding cage and small enclosure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8fYXp82N3E