Five Sisters Zoo Park Bears for Five Sisters

Nisha said:
Five Sisters is hoping to rehome a pair of Brown Bears who were rescued from a travelling circus in Germany. The bears are currently being held in France whilst the park tries to raise the £80,000 needed to buuld them an enclosure for them.
Zoo vows to give bears necessities - Scotsman.com News
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This is interesting and very ambitious for a collection that was , not so long ago, on the verge of possible closure? It is a nice little collection but bears may be beyond its scope as it only caters for a few small mammals at present. I wish them well in their efforts though.
 
This would certainly be a very big step for the place but knowing the owner and some of his staff,I don't doubt that they will make it work,also I have seen the area of land they are planning on using for the enclosure,it will look very good and should also give the Bears plenty of chance to hide if they so wish!!
 
Well, a campaign of this nature worked extremely well for Yorkshire Wildlife Park, perhaps if this is successful it will develop into a model followed by many other collections wishing to expand, ethically, into larger species and raise their profile. I am in no way suggesting this is why they are doing it, only that it I feel it is worthwhile in more ways that one, and should be emulated by others.
 
This really would cement my observation/theory that the bears to zoos ratio increases as the region considered gets further north in the UK. i.e. south of Whipsnade, next to none, Edinburgh upwards, you're tripping over them.
 
As I understand it the bears were not rescued from a travelling circus in Germany as this country has regulations for the accommodation of circuses bears and they would not be allowed to be continually housed in a lorry measuring just 10m square. I have tried to find out more details and it appears these were animals of a retired circus trainer who gave them up when he became too ill to care for them. Although it good news they are hopefully going to be re-homed in a purpose built exhibit.
 
John Dineley said:
As I understand it the bears were not rescued from a travelling circus in Germany as this country has regulations for the accommodation of circuses bears and they would not be allowed to be continually housed in a lorry measuring just 10m square. I have tried to find out more details and it appears these were animals of a retired circus trainer who gave them up when he became too ill to care for them. Although it good news they are hopefully going to be re-homed in a purpose built exhibit.
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That's as I understand the situation, the bear's owner/trainer now retired was unable to care for them any longer,he must have been fond of them though as he didn't just simply dispose of them when he retired, he continued to look after them until it became difficult for him to do so, good wishes to the bears in their new home, hope it all goes well.
 
An update from the newsletter reports that Five Sisters have reached £60,000 and need another £20,000 for completion. The bears journey will begin on the 28th March and they should arrive on the 30th if all goes well.
 
Zoo grins as circus bears prove a hit - Top stories - Scotsman.com
It took months of fundraising to rescue them from a life of misery in a holding pen in Belgium.

Now, just weeks after arriving at their new home at the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian, a trio of mistreated circus bears are already paying their way after helping boost visitor numbers by almost 50 per cent.

About 13,000 people visited the West Calder zoo during April, up from around 9000 in April last year. The European brown bears were unveiled to the Lothians public for the first time at the end of March, to the delight of zoo owners Brian Curran and his wife Shirley. Since then, visitor numbers have rocketed compared with the same period last year, particularly over the Easter break.

Head of marketing and visitor services Lesley Coupar said: “The visitor numbers were wonderful at Easter, every day the car park was chock-a-block. The main focus of their visit was coming to see the bears.”

The zoo launched an £80,000 fundraising appeal last August to build a new home for Suzy, Carmen and Peggy at the zoo, and to pay for the cost of transporting them The appeal raised almost £61,000, leaving them to foot the rest of the bill themselves.

Although the bears are settling in well, Peggy has still to be reintroduced to Suzy and Carmen and is being kept in a separate part of the enclosure.

International bear behaviour expert Else Poulsen will visit the zoo next month to carry out a “workshop” with the bears, which will ultimately help to reintroduce them to each other.

Mrs Coupar said: “We feel this is the time that the bears can be reintroduced altogether – it will be the first time they have been physically together for over a year.

“Else has been sponsored to visit us by another bear organisation down south – Hauser Bears – for a few days, which is really exciting. It’s wonderful for us having her expertise on tap. She will sit with the bears and gain their trust, and get to know them and study them.

“There’s been a bit of growling through the fence but it’s not as bad as it was. Carmen and Peggy are both looking to be the alpha female. We want to take advice [from Else], we don’t want to let them out together and see scuffles.”
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There really ought to be a law against people making unsubstantiated claims about "misery" and "mistreated" in order to raise money and to boost their own egos.
 
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