Lower Bavaria
“Being a real bear again”: This sanctuary gives bears a second life
Bears stand in the sanctuary for bears in Bad Füssing
© Uwe Lein / DPA
Circus bears, dancing bears and bears from bad private keeping have found a new home in the sanctuary in Bad Füssing in Lower Bavaria. The operators now want to include Bärin JJ4 from Trentino. A court will decide how to proceed with the animal.
In the middle of the green idyll of Lower Bavaria is a strictly secured area with a massive gate. Behind it is a so-called sanctuary for bears. 14 animals have found a new home here in Bad Füssing (Passau district) after being released from captivity in several European countries. Now Bärin Gaia (JJ4) from the Italian Trentino has brought media attention to this place. The sanctuary wants to take in the animal that, according to official information, killed a jogger in early April.
The sanctuary is run by the Munich association “Union for Animals”. Its chairman Arpád von Gaál has submitted a declaration of intent to the administrative court in Trento. There will be a hearing there on May 25th and then Gaia’s fate will be decided. The bear was captured after the jogger’s death. The province of Trentino has twice ordered her killing, both times the court overruled it.
If Gaia were brought to Bad Füssing, she would first have to spend six weeks in quarantine, explains Christoph Denk, one of the animal keepers at the sanctuary. After that, she would be housed alone in an acclimatization enclosure. Should she develop sympathy for other bears, Gaia could move in with one of them. “You can tell by the eye contact,” says Denk. Gaia would be the first wild animal to find a home on the farm. The other bears are from captivity with poor care.
7000 square meters per bear
The Munich lawyer and TV presenter Andreas Grasmüller, who has died in the meantime, had the idea of a bear rescue station. In 1993 he founded the Union for Animals, which began with a livestock sanctuary in Germering. When Grasmüller saw a circus bear with a nose ring that had to walk on hot tar, the sanctuary for bears was added, says the animal keeper. It all started with the purchase of the former Bundeswehr site in Bad Füssing in 2004, and a few years later the first female bear, Franzi, moved in. Special electric fences were erected and the old ammunition bunkers were turned into winter quarters. The sanctuary is funded by donations.
The rescued animal siblings Aurora and Ledia, for example, would have had to live in Albania in a nine-square-meter cage with a concrete floor. In the sanctuary, on the other hand, each bear has around 7,000 square meters at its disposal. They could “be really bears” again, thinks Denk. However, a bear that has lived in the wild could also perceive this as small and develop so-called stereotypical behavior. This means, for example, constant cycling or head weighing. Underemployment and lack of space are particularly bad for bears, says Denk.
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Circus bears find a new home in the sanctuary
None of the animals in the sanctuary had an easy past life. Tibor is from Spain. You can tell that he was a circus bear by the fact that he often stands on two legs. Bear Laima from Lithuania lived for years in a cage near a hotel and restaurant. For the amusement of the guests, she was doused with beer and fed with buns soaked in schnapps. In Bad Füssing she made friends with the bear Ben, who is said to be the last circus bear in Germany. He was confiscated by the Deggendorf district office and brought to the sanctuary in 2016.
Animal keeper Christoph Denk
© Uwe Lein / DPA
Bears could be dangerous in the wild, especially if they have cubs, says Denk. People have to learn again to be mindful when out and about and “not to be lost in thought with headphones”. In areas where there are many bears, it might be better to leave the territory to nature, the animal keeper thinks. “Man always tries to control everything.”
Regarding the typical behavior of a bear in the wild, the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) writes that the animals are generally cautious and avoid people. A bear approaches settlements primarily when it has learned that it can find food there. Because of this, people should not leave any leftover food behind. When encountering a bear, it is important to remain calm(Here you can read more about it).
Bears love fruit and honey
Bears like Gaia eat mostly vegetarian food, they especially like fruit. And honey they love, as Denk says. Meat makes up about 20 percent of the feeding in the sanctuary. The bear would eat a sheep if it could catch it easily.
According to Denk, the sanctuary has a capacity for 17 animals. Whether Gaia will move in there is an open question. Arpád of Gaál is still interested in adopting the bear. Now the court decision in Trento must first be awaited and then, if necessary, an application for accommodation must be submitted to the district office in Passau.