If you go down to the woods today...

Well today was an excellent day going to the Free The Bears Inc to see the sun bears and asiatic black bears and pretended to be a zookeeper for the day. We were aware of the charity from an article in The Age before leaving and seeing what passionate people can do. In this case it was Mary Hutton from Perth who saw a documentary on the treatment of bears and started a campaign to rescue them leading to the setting up of the sanctuaries. They have rescued over 500 bears through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, India and Indonesia, either from poachers who sell them for alternative medicines or people that keep them as pets and then realise that they are not. The area set aside for the bears also has 4 other Non Government Organizations (NGO). They’re looking after other endangered species including tigers, elephants, monkeys and birds. They even had a lion that was brought in from Russia as a cub (the owner told customs it was a kitten).

 Sun Bear

The sun bear is the smallest bear with a U crescent marking on its chest and the asiatic black bear has a V shaped marking on its chest. 

Asiatic Bear

Whilst we could not handle the bears we did get to feed them and see the rest of the zoo. There was a friendly gibbon I wanted to take home but someone would not let me.  I was allowed to hold hands with her, which was an amazing experience.

Funky Gibbon

The bears were cute and could stand up when they were expecting food. Some had been kept as pets and would seek out people who come close to the fence.