Incredible Video Sees Orphaned Bear Cubs Meet

Both bears lost mothers to poachers, both were rescued, then they met. What happened next was just beautiful.

These bear cubs both lost their mothers but gained a family

youtube.com / Via animalsasia.org

These bears were rescued from traffickers in Vietnam, both having lost mothers to poachers - their meeting was caught on camera by their carer who believes they’ll go on to become each other’s family.

The meeting took place at Animals Asia’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre - an hour from Hanoi. The sanctuary continues to care for 147 bears rescued from the bear bile trade. Bile is a prized ingredient in traditional medicine with over 1,200 bears still caged and facing regular painful extractions in Vietnam alone.

Goldie arrived, scared and traumatised, in April 2015 aged around six months. Murphy was rescued in July 2015 and was only six to eight weeks old. He had to be nurtured by Animals Asia’s bear workers, who gave him the protection and comfort he should have received from his mother.

The sun bears’ ongoing rehabilitation and growth sees them progressively introduced to wider spaces. After meeting each other now - they’ll eventually be moved to a larger outdoor sun bear enclosure - most likely alongside other sun bears.

See Murphy’s first steps outside here.

Bear Manager Kelly Donithan, who filmed the footage, said:

“Watching these cubs grow up over many months without a companion has been challenging as they are incredibly energetic and playful. Even with what we provide them as their caregivers – we know there is no replacement for having another bear to wrestle with, investigate enrichment alongside and rest next to. After weeks of positive interactions with each other as neighbors, it was a joyful moment to finally open the door between them.

“After a surprised sniff, they were initially distracted with each other’s toys before beginning a marathon of playing, chasing and wrestling until they had to crash for a nap and then woke up for more playing of course! It was a tremendous gift to witness these boys finally interacting and behaving as all little sun bear cubs should be able to.”

Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson said:

“For Goldie and Murphy this is hopefully the end of a very traumatic start to their lives. Bear cubs learn so much from their mothers and for each of these bears to lose theirs at such a young age is heartbreaking. Their carers have been their family but as bears they’ve been alone. This is the point where they start to make bear friends and they start to get on with their lives - they can be happy.

“We make a commitment to each bear we rescue that we’ll take care of them for the rest of their natural lives. It’s likely that Goldie and Murphy will be with us for 30 years to come and no doubt they’ll be lifelong friends.”

Goldie and Murphy are two of the nearly 600 bears Animals Asia has rescued from the bear bile industry in China and Vietnam.