The Bear Sanctuary Prishtina is a sanctuary for rescued brown bears in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

22 km close to the city of

Prishtina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...

Prishtina Bear Sanctuary entrance (OSCAL19 trip)

Background

For many years, there was no law against keeping brown bears in Kosovo. All privately kept

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is ...

s lived in small cages at restaurants. They were born mostly in the forests of Kosovo or

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and snatched from their mothers by animal dealers. As restaurant bears they were supposed to attract customers, and thus profit, for their owners. In November 2010, when it became illegal to keep bears privately, there was a need for a national park as a new home for the restaurant bears rescued from captivity.

The Park

Foundation

The Bear Sanctuary Prishtina was founded in 2013 by

Four Paws Four Paws (stylized FOUR PAWS) is a global animal welfare organisation based in Vienna, Austria. The organisation is focusing on gradually improving the living conditions of animals under direct human influence, by revealing suffering, rescuing ...

in collaboration with KFOR, the Municipality of Pristina, and the

Ministry of Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

in Kosovo. The sanctuary provides species-appropriate place for all "restaurant bears", who now enjoy their life in large enclosures resembling the bears’ natural habitat.

The bears

The Bear Sanctuary Prishtina has currently in care 20 brown bears (as of January 2020). These "restaurant bears" had been tracked down and registered by the government of Kosovo during the last few years and have been rescued in 2013. Two restaurant bears, named Rambo and Luta, could not be saved, because their proprietors killed the bears only hours before the rescue team arrived.

Facilities

The sanctuary is built on an area of sixteen hectares. In addition to the existing facilities, a new environmental education center "Thesaret e Natyrës" is opened in 2018 in order to improve the public attention to animal welfare and environmental issues in Kosovo.

References

External links

Four Paws: project ''Bear Sanctuary Pristina''
{{coord, 42, 38, 17, N, 21, 15, 36, E, region:RS-KM_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Parks in Kosovo

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...