A Bosnian brown bear mum was found lying in the middle of a stone quarry near Sarajevo, with two cubs, who are only three months old, sitting next to her, desperately calling her to get up, local hunters said Sunday as they tried to help her.
Veterinarians from the Sarajevo Veterinary Faculty, the country's top clinic, came to the quarry in the late afternoon and anaesthetised her so they could check her up and gave her some fluids on the spot.
The hunters say she was probably there for some time and several volunteers including Zoran Cegar, the Chief of the Federation entity's uniformed police, as well as Stjepan Kvesic, the man who first found her, stayed with the bear until she was taken to the Veterinary Faculty in Sarajevo for further treatment.
Speaking to N1, Cegar said he learned from the local gamekeeper that the bear must have eaten some vegetables sprayed by snail bait, which is usually sprayed at this time of the year to protect the crops.
Cegar added he offered to drive the bear to the vet clinic if they did not find a proper car to transport her, and that he even contacted Bosnia's Croat Presidency member Zeljko Komsic who also offered to help with the treatment in any way he can. Late last night, the mum was transferred to the vet clinic along with her two cubs.
In a short video shot by Cegar and the volunteers, the bear can be seen drinking water from their hand as she was unable to stand or dring for herself.
Grupa volontera i dalje pokušavaju da spasu medvjedicu kod Kreševa. Stigao je i Zoran Čegar, koji je ponudio da se medvjedica preveze na liječenje pic.twitter.com/B2HIoHt3RQ
— TV N1 Sarajevo (@N1infoSA) May 24, 2020
The vets were not optimistic about her recovery but said they would do everything in their power to save her.
“She should have been taken to the clinic straight away,” Cegar said Monday morning in front of the Veterinary Faculty in Sarajevo.“The doctors who came, did so on their own, as civilians, not as representatives of some institutions. As did I. Had I not come to help her, I'm not sure she'd have been alive now.”
He stressed that he was not satisfied with the work of the competent institutions – because the emergency service for cases like this one does not exist.
“Had we had it – the situation would have been easier, the bear would be stable,” he said.
“The other problem is that this is the fourth bear poisoning case in the country. They were all poisoned the same way. No one's doing anything about it to see how they were poisoned, why, and with what. Imagine the sadness of catching a bear cub who is still suckling. This is painful,” Cegar noted.
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He said the cubs are stable and in a separate room, but a competent institution that will take care of them must come forward.
“I'd take them, I have land to house them but they need 24h care. They need food and milk for at least a year and I can't do that. The Faculty can't take care of them, they don't have the conditions and the local Zoo is full,” Cegar pointed out adding that his biggest wish is for the mum to get well and for them to release all three bears back to the forest.
Bears are a protected species in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
