cute moment
These Grisons bears hibernate side by side
They are brother and sister and enjoy their winter rest together. A rare phenomenon in these plantigrades.
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Since the last week of December, the bears in the Bärenland of Arosa (GR) have been in hibernation. “Amelia and Meimo, two seventeen-year-old brown bears, have decided to spend this rest period together,” explains Hans Schmid, scientific director of Arosa Bärenland, to “20 Minuten”. In a small cave, brother and sister keep each other warm, huddled together. They don’t hesitate to give each other a few licks, as we can see in the video above.
According to Hans Schmid, communal hibernation is extremely rare, as bears are usually solitary following their second or third year of life. “Amelia and Meimo have an extremely strong bond. As the bears were kept from an early age, for 13 years, in a small wire cage, they are almost inseparable,” explains the scientist.
A tumultuous past
Amelia and Meimo arrived in 2019 in Bärenland. Previously, they lived in a private mini-zoo of a restaurant in the Albanian city of Shkoder. “The owner of the restaurant establishment acquired the bears from the illegal animal market. The mother of the brown bears had been shot before in order to guarantee the safe care of the young animals,” explains Hans Schmid. For 13 years, the two animals lived in a metal cage of barely 60 square meters. They never hibernated. They adopted the winter rest only since their arrival in Arosa.
(Tim Bürkle/jbm)
