Small living quarters aren’t fun no matter what species you are. We all need to get some exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Some of us just don’t have the luxury.
Animals in cramped living spaces are too common of an occurrence, like with this moon bear here.
Moon bear is another name for the Asian black bear. These bears aren’t as large as their famous American cousins – the Brown and black bears.
Asian black bears are also much less picky with their food. They’ll eat the usual bugs, buts, and honey. But when they can’t get their hands on that, they can also prey on monkeys or livestock.
But as adaptable as they are with food, they story is different when it comes to living space. A small, metal cage isn’t a place for a bear, and it’s why this moment with this bear is such a big deal.
This Asian black bear’s name is Dawn, and she’s been in this cage for 20 years.
Dawn hasn’t gotten to do any of the things that you might read about Asian black bears in an encyclopedia. She’s not gotten to hibernate in a pit or go digging for grubs or old nuts.
Another thing that these bears can do is get into minor turf wars with another kind of bear: the sloth bear. Sloth bears also live in Asiatic forests and can occasionally cross paths with the Asian black bears.
This may come as no surprise, but these bears are marked as vulnerable by the IUCN.
That means “not endangered but we shouldn’t get careless.” Poachers are to blame for much of the problem, and the hope is that we nip the problem in the bud before they move up the IUCN scale.
Dawn shared that horrible substitute for a home with two other bears, Twilight and Midnight.
So not only was it small, but they had to share it between the 3 of them. Can you imagine?
Their story is a lot sadder than just being in a cage for 20 years. Dawn, Twilight, and Midnight were used on a bear bile-farming site before they were rescued.
Because of the long, traumatic conditions she lived in, rehabilitating her will take time.
Her caretakers noted that they can’t just put the bears inside of a sanctuary and call it a day.
These three have become conditioned to how they lived those 20 years. Suddenly dropping them into a new environment with unfamiliar sights and sounds might not be a great idea. In the rescuers’ own words, it could further traumatize the bears.
So it appears that these bears’ road to rehabilitation is a long one, but one they can make.
They just need time and a lot of care.
The long-term goal is for Dawn and her siblings to be able to forage, nap, and do bear things for the rest of their life without issue.
I sure hope they reach that goal.
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