Bern bears to move to Romania
Ursina and Berna, the two young brown bears considered one of the Swiss capital’s main attractions, will move to a Romanian enclosure, a report says.
The cubs, born in the BearPark along the banks of the Aare river in 2009, have been looking for a new home for months. Their mother, also hosted in the same park, rejected them as soon as they got old enough to survive on their own, as typical for the species.
The park said 270 zoos around the world offered a place for the two cubs, including parks in Colombia, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, which were rejected for unsuitable climatic conditions, said a report on the Bern local edition of the 20 Minuten newspaper.
The choice fell on a 80-acres bear sanctuary near Zarnesti, 200 kilometres northwest of Bucharest. The reserve is already home to 57 bears, mostly rescued from circuses and other zoos worldwide.
The Bern BearPark will pay the sanctuary 20,000 francs ($23,600) a year as a contribution for the upkeep of the cubs, the paper said. Their move is planned for the autumn.
Bears have been kept in Bern since 1513. Until 1857 they were in the city itself, then in a bear pit and, from 2009, in the BearPark, close to the historical city center, which continues to host the cubs’ mother and other bears, plays host to thousands of visitors every year.
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