Straight from the Surazh forests. The Vitebsk Zoo has a new furry addition

The Vitebsk Zoo has recently welcomed new furry residents. The zoo's director, Irina Orlova, told a BELTA correspondent about the origin of the twin bear cubs and where the female cub has already been placed.

Foresters accidentally discovered a bear den in the Surazh forests while clearing a logging area. The mother bear, hearing human voices, seemed to emerge from the ground, and everyone scattered in surprise and fear. Later, the forest workers saw the fluffy, helpless cubs in the den. With no chance of the mother bear returning, the twins (a male and a female) were handed over to the Vitebsk animal shelter.
"Despite the common belief that maternal instinct is strong in wild females, it only kicks in for mother bears when they lead their offspring out of the den. Before that, all natural processes occur automatically, and, figuratively speaking, in a semi-drowsy state – cubs are born in winter during hibernation, so the mother bear needs to fully realize who is with her. As soon as the whole family leaves the hibernation site, the protective instinct for the cubs is activated. Anyone approaching the cubs within 10 meters faces an unfortunate fate. If the mother bear is disturbed before this moment, for example, by a dog barking in a village, if she has made her den near a human settlement, then the female will almost certainly not return, dooming the cubs to death from cold, hunger, or other predators for whom the cubs become easy prey," explained Irina Orlova.
The cubs, by all appearances, were no more than a month and a half old. The twins were weak, having been alone for several days. They were immediately taken care of, taught to eat and drink a mixture of milk and cream from a bottle with a nipple. The female cub was named Yagodka (Berry), and yesterday she was transferred to the Mogilev Zoo, where she will have a large and spacious home.
The male cub, Dobrynya, has remained in Vitebsk for now. In the next couple of months, he also needs to find a new home and caring hands. "By the age of three months, bear cubs become accustomed to a specific person. If they are separatedwith a new "mother", it will be a severe stress for them, the cubs may refuse food brought by a stranger. We hope that Dobrynya will also find his home," added Irina Orlova.
The zoo management is considering all options and any outcome, including the one where the cute bear with a white fluffy "collar" will stay in Vitebsk. The existing bear enclosure will have to be expanded, another den built, and for the zoo, another predator and new construction is a difficult burden. The sturdy enclosure that can withstand the two-year-old brown bear sisters Dunya and Glasha (these brown sisters currently live in the zoo) was built by the whole community - residents of the city, organizations, and enterprises contributed. Considering that animals found in the wild are regularly brought here "for rehabilitation", there are constant unforeseen expenses.
Irina Orlova also said that fakes about the deplorable state of the zoo often appear online, claiming that the animals live in very cramped conditions. She emphasized that they earn money for both feed and enclosure repairs themselves, plus indifferent residents and organizations provide feasible charitable assistance.
"They make up all sorts of things about us on social media accounts, but we explain that we love, protect, and feed our four-legged children well. The zoo has become a kind of refuge for wild animals that have suffered from human hands. Some suggest that we transfer the bears to a bear rehabilitation center in Russia. However, it should be understood that bear cubs stay with their mother for about two years in nature. During this time, she teaches them to find food, shows them how to choose a place and build a den. After this age, the cubs become completely independent, strong, and powerful predators. In a rehabilitation center, there are no opportunities to teach bear cubs to survive in the wild, so before hibernation, 10-11-month-old bears are released into the forest. At this age, they are still quite vulnerable, and there is no mother nearby who could protect them from large predators, help them survive the winter in a den, so cha

not all of these bear cubs survive until spring. Most of them die or become easy prey for hunters," the interlocutor explained.