Free the Bears

Background

Free the Bears has been working with the Cambodian Forestry Administration to provide a safe sanctuary for bears rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in Cambodia since 1997. Today the Cambodian Bear Sanctuary is the worlds’ biggest sanctuary for sun bears, home to rescued bears housed in world-class forest enclosures. Additionally numerous sun bears have been sent to join cooperative breeding programmes in Australasia and Europe, including Colchester Zoological Society’s own pair of sun bears; Srey Ya and Jo Jo.

Free the Bears has been working in Laos since 2003. Since then, more than 100 bears have been confiscated or have been donated. As a result of strengthened law enforcement efforts, bears have been rescued and relocated to a sanctuary at Luang Prabang. This facility contains a quarantine area, numerous bear houses plus adjoining forest enclosures, including pre-release enclosures to begin the process of trialling the processes required to successfully rehabilitate rescued bears in order to return them to the wild.

Achievements and Objectives

Free the Bears (FTB) is working to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world by offering a safe sanctuary for bears rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.

In 2024, a record 34 bears were rescued. This included the world’s largest rescue of threatened bear cubs, involving 16 tiny cubs ranging in weight between 1.3kg and 4kg. Sadly, one of the cubs didn’t make it, however, the 15 survivors are now healthy and strong. Many of the other bears rescued were also orphaned cubs, two of which had horrific wounds from wire snare traps, although thankfully both are now on the road to recovery. Older bears were also rescued, that had been caged for many years, including a golden moon bear. All of these bears have been spared a life of pain, fear and suffering and will join the hundreds of rescued bears at Free the Bears’ sanctuaries.

In 2024, Colchester Zoological Society gave a contribution of £7,500 towards Free the Bears; £6000 towards the expansion of the Laos sanctuary’s sun bear facilities to help create a second facility and new group of sun bears during 2025, as four sun bears were rescued in 2024. The other £1,500 towards recruitment of a new Behavioural Research Assistant, including sample collection from a male sun bear who will have an implant fitted to control sperm production. This represents a rare opportunity to integrate behavioural observations with hormonal monitoring to analyse the effects of contraceptive use on male social and reproductive behaviours to help inform future contraceptive practices in captive bear populations.