Rescue Bear Anuk
The sun bear and the fate of the illegal wildlife trade
In August 2024, a tiny sun bear cub was found in the back of a taxi at the bus station in Thanh Hoa City – alone, less than 3 kilograms and only a few weeks old. The police confiscated her before her trader could send her off on a bus to Southern Vietnam. She was most likely smuggled from Laos into Vietnam, and it is possible that she was supposed to be brought out of the country to be sold to Russia or the Middle East.
Immediately after the confiscation, the Vietnamese authorities reached out to FOUR PAWS and asked to take over the rescued sun bear cub.
When she arrived at our sanctuary, she was in a critical state and suffered from severe dehydration. She was in desperate need of around-the-clock treatment from the experienced team and was fed every 3-4 hours. At BEAR SANCTUARY Ninh Binh, she also received her name Anuk which means 'bear' in Greenlandic.
Even though she was spared a species' inappropriate life, she will have to stay at the sanctuary forever. The little cub wouldn’t survive in the wild without her mother and due to a lack of rehabilitation programmes and safe places for bears in Vietnam, a release into the wild is not possible.
Follow Her Journey
Enjoying her enrichment activities
As summer temperatures soar, Anuk is enjoying ice blocks packed with some of her favourite treats like bananas, mulberries, honey, figs, cooked pumpkin and carrot keep Anuk busy by encouraging her to bite, dig and chew at the ice to retrieve her special treats. Recently, we also introduced a KONG toy into her environment. This novel item is designed to encourage Anuk’s curiosity and play — a crucial part in the healthy development of a young animal. Sun bears may be the smallest bear species, but they have impressively long claws – growing up to 10 cm and are comparable in length to those of a brown bear! Anuk has been showing off her claws a lot lately, using them to navigate her exciting new enrichment.
Getting stronger and stronger
The rescued bear cub is now fed five times per day and loves her bottles of milk, as well as eating vegetables or ants. Anuk is extremely active. In particular, she loves climbing, swimming in her outdoor pool, licking up streams of ants she finds in her enclosure and enjoying all her new enrichment like the multiple climbing structures and trees. She loves to dig in the dirt and attack all the plants. Sun bears love climbing trees to obtain fruits and insects as well as building nests in trees to sleep in them. Even though Anuk might need more time to get into the nest building, we can all agree that she is already a pro at climbing.
The next steps
After ending quarantine, Anuk has moved into her cub enclosure, where she has 3 indoor dens and a small fully enclosed outdoor area. Indoors she has some climbing structures, hammocks, straws, blankets, and daily changing enrichment. She also spends time in her larger outdoor enclosure for a couple of hours in the morning and afternoon. She has been getting more and more active since she arrived at the sanctuary.
Getting settled
At the recovery room of the veterinary clinic, Anuk received intensive care around the clock and was fed every 3-4 hours. As Anuk is still a baby and needs social interaction, our caretakers basically function as her mother especially as she is a single cub.
A dramatic start in life
Anuk was snatched away from her mother before she was illegally trafficked and found in Thanh Hoa City, Vietnam. We doubt that she was caught in the wild in Vietnam, as there are only a few sun bears left in the wild. When she arrived at BEAR SANCTUARY Ninh Binh, she weighed 2.8 kilograms and was not older than 60 days.
