The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is funding a project in Ecuador to
rehabilitate and release five spectacled bears back to the wild; three of the bears will
be returned to the wild in April/May 2000, with the others scheduled to follow later in the
year.
The bears, one female (Sasha) and four males (Tito, Boogie, Jugueton and Martin) are all around two years of age and were taken from the wild as cubs when hunters killed their mothers. They were then sold as exotic pets before being rescued when about a year old. They were then taken in by a British couple, Jim and Teresa Clare, who live near Cuenca in Southern Ecuador.
Three of the bears, Martin Jugueton and Sasha, have since been moved to a big 20m x 6m rehabilitation cage on land near to Ecuador's Sangay National Park. The process of rehabilitation involves the bears learning to adapt to being in a semi-wild environment with the altitude, climate and natural food sources that these bears will be faced with in the wild. It is expected that these bears will be released into Sangay National Park later in the year; Martin should be released in April, with Jugueton and Sasha scheduled to be reintroduced in May.
Once the three bears have been returned to the wild, Boogie and Tito will be taken to the rehabilitation site, in preparation for their expected return to the wild later in the year. All the bears will be radio collared to enable researchers to keep track of them for both animal welfare conditions and conservation for several months after their release.
Gerardo Huertas, WSPA's Director for Latin America, said:
"I am delighted that these young bears will finally have a chance to live free in the wild
and not spend the rest of their lives in captivity. This is just one of the many projects
that WSPA is doing around the world to help save bears as part of its Liberty campaign."
Spectacled bears are one of the least known species of bear and these reclusive animals are threatened by a seemingly unstoppable tide of poaching and habitat loss. Considered endangered by many conservationists, the spectacled, or Andean, bear is classified as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is listed as Appendix 1 under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES).
In the wild, polar bears spend most of their lives drifting on ice floes or swimming through
the Arctic Ocean. In the Suarez Brothers Circus, polar bears spend much of their lives trapped
in small, ironbarred cages, suffering through the intense heat of Central and South America.
Each day, the bears are forced to perform in a circus act where they are poked and prodded
into climbing up and down ramps.
This spectacle of cruelty first came to WSPA's attention when the Suarez Brothers Circus travelled through Costa Rica earlier this year. Immediately, WSPA organised protesters and began gathering evidence of inhumane conditions. A publicity campaign eventually convinced the city of Cartaga to deny the circus pemission to perform.
By contacting other humane organisations and passing along banners, pamphlets and
documented evidence. WSPA kept up the pressure on circus officials as they moved through
Panama and Columbia. Eventually they were forced to improve conditions for the bears
by allowing them access to a small swimming pool filled with water and chunks of ice. In
order to prevent such inappropriate animal displays in the future,WSPA will work with Costa
Rican lawyers to regulate travel circuses.
Legislative initiatives for other countries are also being considered.