One of the only survivors of a massacre. An Asian black bear, found in Ukraine in October 2022 in a very worrying state of health, will be welcomed at the beginning of 2024 in a Scottish zoo, announced the British center, relayed by CNN.
After the liberation of the Russian-occupied village of Lyman, near Donetsk, last October, Yampil – whose name refers to the locality where he was found – was discovered in a small private zoo among nearly 200 corpses of animals. He had been seriously injured by a shell and had only a few days to live before help arrived, according to the Five Sisters Zoo, between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“Some animals were even killed and eaten during the Russian occupation,” he added.
“The invaders brutally attacked most of the wild animals kept there, but the bear remained alive. However, he is in a terrible condition and injured due to a shell that hit the enclosure where he was locked up,” lamented UAnimals, the association having taken care of him at the time.
A trauma still present
The 12-year-old black bear was until now taken care of by the Belgian rescue association Natuurhulpcentrum. “Our friends asked us to provide a warm and permanent home” to Yampil, commented Five Sisters. For this, he launched an appeal for donations to find around 200,000 pounds in order to rebuild a new enclosure and provide psychological support to the animal, still in shock.
“We want to make sure that we build him an environment worthy of a sanctuary. Scotland will meet his needs, they will be adapted to his traumas and the maladaptive behaviors that he may have developed during this time,” he told CNN. Romain Pizzi, head of the zoo’s veterinarians.
Thus, the Five Sisters Zoo will be able to “provide a habitat allowing it to flourish for the rest of its life”.
Original article published on BFMTV.com