Latest news with #bears
BBC News
7 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Meet the Isle of Wight carpenter behind rescued bears enclosure
The carpenter who built an enclosure for two "naughty" rescued brother bears says it feels "amazing" to see them Tweitman helped create the enclosure for Benji and Balu at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary on the Isle of has been almost a year in the making to create the enclosure for the bears, who were saved from a cage in Azerbaijan and released into the sanctuary on 4 Tweitman says it was "quite emotional" to see the bears splashing around in the water - even if they recently damaged part of their new enclosure. The bears were recently moved into a smaller pen while repairs were made to part of their new home, but have since been chief executive, Lawrence Bates, said they had a "notoriously curious nature" and jokingly called them "naughty bears" after they damaged a brick. Mr Tweitman explained the 3,500sqm (11,483 sqft) enclosure was made through "lots of recycling and re-using" to keep costs materials have been used to make the bear platform and the connecting ramp in the bears' new the local marina donated concrete boat floats to build the structure."Actually building an enclosure for bears - everything is supersized, super engineered and structurally a lot safer. There's zoo regulations to follow, guidelines and stuff so the bears don't escape," Mr Tweitman said."[There was] a lot of thought about putting in a rock slide to hang out on and sunbathe. All sorts of things that cropped up as we built, adding in extra mounds for privacy, hibernation holes." About two years ago, the bears were relocated by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to a temporary had been previously kept in a cage at a restaurant in Azerbaijan to attract 2024, Wildheart Animal Sanctuary started a fundraising campaign to pay for the bears' transport and brand new home, with almost £218,000 raised. Mr Tweitman added: "We broke ground last August I think, obviously it was time critical getting the bears here."It's absolute madness really, to think the amount of work and effort that everyone's put in to this build for two bears."It's quite emotional just to see them splashing around in the water, just happy." You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Digested week: It's summer, and I am a burnt smorgasbord for every bug
Peak bear performance was attained today, at Wildwood Devon near Ottery St Mary (also peak British placename performance, but that need not detain us here). Two five-year-old European brown bears, Mish and Lucy (no relation), escaped from their enclosure at the park and headed straight for its cafe's food stores, where they happily ploughed their way through a week's worth of honey before being gently lured back home with a bell and some other snacks, whereupon Mish promptly fell asleep. It's perfect. The Teddy Bears' Picnic (what a big surprise in the woods it must have been, especially to whoever was responsible for keeping the enclosure secure!), Winnie-the-Pooh, a suggestion of Paddington in the eminent reasonableness of it all, plus European brown bears being by far the cutest and most childhood-teddy-like of all. This is the good news story we need. Enjoy it. The year is shaping up … badly. Mish and Lucy were originally rescued from an Albanian snow drift. I am on my way to Devon to ask them for directions back there. Summer, the vilest of all seasons is properly here. Once again I appear to have neglected to get my air-conditioned bunker built in time and so I am stuck on this boiling isle, whose architecture, culture, working and retail hours are designed to cope only with temperatures of 'brisk' and below. I was born in a cardigan. That is how I need to live. Not least because when I am forced to expose skin to sun it not only burns but makes me an instant smorgasbord of haemo-delights for any and every passing bug. I say passing – I'm pretty sure some of them fly in specially, a date on their little bug calendars saying: 'Mangan meat feast begins'. Bastards. Venomous little bastards. From now until the end of August, I am an ambulant mass of swellings, slippery with hydrocortisone cream and stuporous with anti-histamine meds. 'Does not cause drowsiness' they say. They do if you take them by the boxful, fools. This year I plan to pay my child to rub me lightly with sandpaper all evening to relieve the itching, and to invest in a mosquito net while I draw up the bunker blueprints and break ground for 2026. People of Britain. *shakes head sorrowfully*. People of Britain, you are upsetting the brave asset management companies of this country. News breaks that we are saving too much. In cash, of all things! Instead of investing in stocks and shares – thereby helping the economy, and asset management companies – we are insisting on having ready access to a certain and definable store of our money so that we can ride out personal and professional crises as well as the boring, ongoing one apparently without end known as 'the cost of living'. Will no one think of the global funds and their traders (I hope I'm using these words correctly – could a rich person check)? If we all just keep hold of our cash and use it to pay for basic goods and services, where's the excitement? Where are the ecstatic highs and perilous lows of playing the markets? Is the economy just supposed to manage without our contributions? We're there to serve it, remember, not the other way round! I love the world of finance, in which everything is turned upside down and everyone looks at you as if pound coins are sentient and that this is exactly the way things are supposed to be. It enables me to look at the nugatory balance in my determinedly current account paying no interest and feel that at least I am by my simple absence from the FTSE 100 sticking it to The Man. 'What do you want for your tea when you come on Friday?' Mum asks me on the WhatsApp family chat because my sister and I taught her how to use the app after Dad died, heedless of the consequences because we weren't thinking straight. 'Chicken and mushroom, please.' 'No.' 'But you said you'd made some last week?' 'That was for the freezer.' Sensing the need for back up approaching, my sister joins. 'Are you saying – that it can't come out of the freezer? Does it have to stay in the freezer for ever? I remind you that we have power of attorney come the day we have proof your mental faculties have deteriorated to dangerous levels.' 'Not for ever. But it hasn't been in there long.' 'So – like not being able to sit on the sofa for two hours after you've plumped the cushions, we can't eat food from the freezer until it's been in there long enough for you to revel in the results of your labour?' 'Also, I've only done portions for three. There'll only be two of us.' '…' says my sister. '…' say I. We're having a Co-op fish pie. Break out the bubbly and throw on your glad rags – the wedding is about to begin! Jeff Bezos and his money have arrived in Venice to join with fiancee Láuren Sanchez in holy matrimony, at an estimated cost of between £34m and £41m, or about two hours and 40 minutes of the Amazon founder's earnings. It has everything a wedding should have. The Kardashians, a newly-single Orlando Bloom, and widespread protests at the multi-billionaire essentially renting the entire city for the three-day nuptial event. You have to hope, though, that at its heart it is the same as every other wedding. And I do believe that money cannot buy certain things. It cannot buy, I suspect, guests who truly want to take three days out of their busy lives and in uncomfortable shoes to watch two people say some vows in a church, however garlanded, and then be forced to celebrate their bliss for hours and hours thereafter, no matter how free-flowing or top quality the booze. Money can't buy an absence of boring relatives or freedom from the fear of being seated beside one. Above all, of course, money can't buy love. Though I am sure this precious state of grace is absolutely at the core of this extravaganza. The rest is noise. Especially from the Kardashian table, I suspect.
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Two Bears Escape Wildlife Park Enclosure, Eat a 7-Day Supply of Honey, Then Fall Asleep
Two young bears escaped from their enclosure at a UK wildlife park and devoured a week's worth of food store honey before falling asleep, the park said on Tuesday. Mish and Lucy, both aged four, got out of their enclosure at Wildwood Devon in southwestern England on Monday afternoon, according to CBS News. The pair made a beeline for their food store where they scoffed snacks, including the seven-day supply of honey, a park statement said. The bears 'posed no threat to the public at any point' although visitors on site were escorted to a secure building as a precaution. During the hour-long drama, the bears were 'continuously monitored both on the ground and via CCTV' until they were returned to their enclosure by keepers and promptly 'fell asleep,' Wildwood added. 'Our experienced keeping team acted immediately, following established safety protocols, and successfully used recall training to encourage both bears back into their enclosure without the need for any intervention,' the park said. Police were at the scene and an investigation was underway to determine how the animals managed to break out. The park said an 'operational error' allowed the bears to escape, without elaborating. 'This was an isolated incident, and we are conducting a full internal investigation to understand exactly how it happened and to ensure robust measures are in place to prevent a reoccurrence," the park wrote on social media. It added, 'While the structural integrity of the bear enclosure remains uncompromised, we take any operational lapse extremely seriously.' The park, which covers 40 acres of gardens and woodland, is home to an array of wildlife including brown bears, wolves and arctic foxes. Mish and Lucy were taken in by Wildwood in 2021 after being abandoned by their mother in a snowdrift in the Albanian mountains. Several attempts were made to reintroduce the cubs into the wild but it became clear to conservationists that they could not survive on their own.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
‘Naughty' bears escape, steal a week's worth of honey and take long nap
In the fairy tale, Goldilocks goes into the home of the three bears to eat their porridge and sleep in their beds. But at the Wildwood Devon conservation park in Britain, it's the bears who are doing the breaking and entering — and sleeping. Two young bears named Lucy and Mish escaped from their enclosure earlier this week and headed straight for their food store, where they gobbled up a week's worth of honey before falling asleep, the park said in a statement on social media.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Rogue bears' honey supply replenished by community in Devon
A pair of bears who escaped and raided their keepers' food store in Devon are in the honey once more thanks to generous community donations. European brown bears Mish and Lucy sparked a "code red" on Tuesday, in an escape that conservation charity Wildwood Trust said was caused by an unlocked dynamic duo consumed "a week's worth of honey", the trust said, as well as jam and other supplies - prompting a "sugar rush" and leaving a depleted larder in their Habben, director of zoological operations at Wildwood Trust, near Exeter, said: "I think everyone's picked up on the fact bears really do love honey - we've had donations including a 15kg (33lb) tub." Mr Habben added: "We've also had donations to purchase more honey."It's just been been really lovely support from the local community."I couldn't have more gratitude for how people have responded to this and rallied around and offered support and also come in to see Mish and Lucy."People have picked up the cheeky element of bears, I think, and that they're a lovely, peaceful animal."Mr Habben said they had also been inundated by visitors since the incident captured imaginations across the country and beyond. It was at about 15:00 BST on Monday that the young bears "breached" the enclosure and made their way to a staff the duo "feasted and played around", a park evacuation and lockdown took place, while staff trained in firearms and the police were deployed to the about 55 minutes, Lucy made her way back to the enclosure, while Mish was lured back with a bell and some food. 'Crashed out' Mr Habben said the sugar from the honey hit the bears shortly afterwards."They gorged on honey and then they somehow needed to burn all of the energy off that that honey had created."They charged around for a good few hours, climbing up the trees, which was really fun to see, and jumping in the pond."He said they then "crashed out" in a deep sleep "for hours" - just as an influx of visitors arrived to see the now-famous bears."I think it was all of the running around from the sugar rush coupled with all of that sensory enrichment from being somewhere they shouldn't. They are like toddlers." Mr Habben said a safety review was now under way to ensure the unlocked gate "never happens again"."We've been transparent that a mistake was made but at the end of it is a really positive ending and the engagement has been great."
