• After rehabilitation in the specialized center "Arcturos" in Greece the cubs Nikola, Misho and Aneta are back in the wild
• Minister Petar Dimitrov joined the rescue teams that released the bears into the wild

The partnered efforts by the Ministry of Environment and Waters (MOEW), the nature conservation organization WWF, the FOUR PAWS Foundation, and the Arcturos Specialized Center (ARCTUROS) - Greece, have given three orphaned cubs a chance for a new life. During several joint operations, cubs Nikola, Misho, and Aneta were captured, cared for in specialized centers in Bulgaria and abroad and returned into the wild.

Environment and Water Minister Petar Dimitrov joined the rescue teams, who yesterday released the cubs into the wild at a carefully selected location - a brown bear habitat on the territory of the Rila National Park. The animals were transported to the site in special cages. Their return into the wild comes after the Arcturos Rehabilitation Centre assessed that the bears had reached the appropriate age and weight to be released back into the wild.

The release of the bears took place under extreme safety measures, as even a thirty-kilogram bear is capable of seriously injuring an adult male, experts warn. The animals have been tagged with GPS collars that allow their continuous tracking and thus will ensure the safety of both humans and animals. The tracking is done in real time with the involvement by experts from the Rila National Park and the WWF.

The story of the three bears started last year. In July, the WWF's rescue team, with the help of forestry officials and Vitosha Nature Park staff, carried out an operation to capture a five-month-old bear cub. Having lost his mother, the bear Nikola had found refuge in a tree, from where he was rescued. In October, two more orphaned cubs Aneta and Misho, were rescued within a few weeks, lured by an animal feeder near the village of Krushovitsa, Elin Pelin. The local hunting club and the municipality alerted the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water (RIEW) - Sofia, which turned to the WWF for assistance. Members of the reaction team responded instantly to rescue them.

The three cubs received care to strengthen them, spending some time in the "Park for Bears Belitsa" - the only protected place in Bulgaria where the team of FOUR PAWS provides a chance for a new life to rescued bears, and then with the assistance of experts from the Ministry of Environment and Water were placed in the specialized brown bear rehabilitation center "Arcturos" in Greece.

Minister Dimitrov expressed his gratitude to the teams of the WWF and FOUR PAWS for the joint work, "which shows how important the good cooperation between the NGO sector and the state institutions is when it comes to nature conservation".

"Our care does not end with the release of the bears. We will be here for regular field visits, for setting and checking photo traps for observation, and for recapturing them if necessary. The bears wear special GPS collars that we can use to track their movements. But we will only intervene as a last resort - if their health is in peril or if there are signs of problematic behaviour," explained Aleksander Dutsov, a senior expert with the WWF's Species Conservation Programme and member of the bear rescue team.

This is the third joint operation for the release of bears into their natural habitat, which takes place in Bulgaria. For the successful implementation of the three operations in 2019, 2022, and 2024 contributed experts from the structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water – the National Parks "Central Balkan" and "Rila", the Regional Inspectorates of Environmental Protection - Smolyan and Sofia, specialists from the State Park "Vitosha", the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Wildlife Association "Balkans".

The video is provided by Kamak Films.