Brown Bear rescue
Malenky & Nanuq need your help
We face an urgent new mission: two bear cubs in desperate need of a new home after their mother was rescued from the war in Ukraine.
Malenky and Nanuq, one-year old bear cubs currently being temporarily homed in Belgium have endured an extraordinary tale of resilience and survival, but now they desperately need help to find a safe and loving forever home. Together, we can be the lifeline these cubs need.
Wildwood Trust is dedicated to providing a safe and loving home for bears who have faced unimaginable hardship, and giving them a second chance at life. Sadly, not every bear gets to live freely in the wild. Many are imprisoned in private collections, bred for hunting, caged and farmed, or forced to perform in circuses.
We’ve built a home for these bears where they can be safe from the trauma they’ve suffered, a woodland haven where they can rediscover their natural behaviours and begin to heal.
How you can help
Caring for our wildlife requires immense resources - caring for our bears costs £175,000 every year. Help us make sure that these animals get the future they deserve. Every donation helps us not only care for our bears but also protect other animals who need a second chance at life.
- £25 could help feed our bears for a day.
- £50 could help provide enrichment, improving the welfare of our bears.
- £100 could contribute to veterinary care and medication.
Meet the bears we've rescued
Boki
We adopted a 10-month old bear cub in desperate need of a home, after being rejected by his mother at just ten weeks old.
As he started to grow, it was clear he needed a new home where he could learn how to be a bear, somewhere he would have the space to play and explore, and other bears to teach him natural bear behaviours.
As expert in brown bear rehabilitation, Wildwood stepped up to make sure Boki could have a home. Boki loved his new home and became a little playful brother to our older bears.
Boki's journey is ongoing. He became the first European Brown Bear to have an MRI and undergo brain surgery after we discovered he has hydrocephalus.
Diego
Diego was the last remaining bear after Sweden's Orsa Predator Park closed its doors in November 2022. If Wildwood had not stepped in to save him, he would have been put to sleep.
He arrived at our park in Devon in the midst of Storm Ciaran in November 2023. The storm made ferry passage too risky, so at the last minute Diego was placed on the Eurotunnel train. He had his own carriage, and arrived at 8pm, tired and sleepy. In the pitch black and windswept with sheets of rain, Diego was transferred from his travel crate into his new dry, warm enclosure.
Diego is a big lad with impeccable manners. He has quickly earned the title of gentle giant amongst the keepers at Wildwood and towers over our half-grown bears, Mish and Lucy, weighing more than 330 kilos.
After spending the winter with us, mostly in torpor, he moved to Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park in Ipswich in Arpil 2024 where they have built him his own woodland enclosure.
Mish and Lucy
Mish and Lucy are siblings who were discovered in a snowdrift in the Albanian mountains. They were abandoned by their mother, and with predators circling conservationists intervened before the worst could happen.
They spent six months at Wildwood Kent before they were transported to their forever-home at Wildwood Devon.
Fluff and Scruff
Brothers Fluff and Scruff, the first of our bears to make Wildwood their home, were rescued in November 2014 from a disused bear hunting centre in Bulgaria.
Our incredible supporters helped us raise enough money to rescue Fluff and Scruff, and bring them 1600 miles by truck and ferry to their new woodland home.
Our rehabilitation efforts are about encouraging natural behaviours, and never have our efforts been so rewarding as when these siblings went into torpor for the first time in 2017.
The rescue and care of brown bears is an expensive and challenging endeavour, but we are driven forward by love and commitment to our bears. We would not be able to do this vital work without support and donations from the public.
Your support is essential in giving these bears a second chance. Together, we can give rescued bears hope for a better future.