Croatia: Bear Hugs In Home For Abandoned Cubs

inavukic

9 years ago

Ivan Crnkovic-Pavenka at the
Kuterevo Bear Refuge
Croatia
Photo/Tomislav Sostarko

There is a sanctuary, a refuge for brown bear cubs in a small village Kuterevo, Croatia. Besides abandoned brown bears, baby brown bears that due to an accident or poaching have been separated from their mothers and are too young to live independently have found a home in Kuterevo, on the slopes of Velebit Mountain in Lika – just one and a half hour drive from the coast. Kuterevo Bear Refuge is a unique project in the world.

Brown Bear
Kuterevo Bear Refuge

While most of Europe’s brown bears have been wiped out but Croatia’s native population is estimated at 1,000. Thanks to the work of one man, Ivan Crnkovic-Pavenka, who just over ten years ago set up Kuterevo Bear Refuge in the village of Kuterevo, Lika/Velebit region, brown bears and especially abandoned bear cubs have a chance of survival.

A retired social worker Ivan Crnkovic-Pavenka has provided a haven for brown bears that wander into villages in search of food and develop too strong a taste for human leftovers. Usually in Europe, when bear cubs get used to humans, they cannot survive in the wild. And when they grow too big, they’re shot.
“We wanted to offer an alternative to killing orphan bear cubs that got attached to human civilization,” Crnkovic-Pavenka said.

Brown Bear
Kuterevo Bear Refuge
Enjoying the pond made especially for the bears

Crnkovic-Pavenka expects some 500 volunteers from four continents to come to the Kuterevo Bear Refuge between June and October. The good-willed, young working hands and knowledgeable volunteers are expected to do as much work as possible in order to create conditions of quality co-existence of people and the abandoned brown bears in the Refuge. Crnkovic-Pavenka plans volunteer arrivals in groups or by individuals, whose stay may be from a week to four months. Besides work the Refuge is planning to offer the volunteers some forms of entertainment and “rest for the soul”, he said.

Volunteers at work in
Kuterevo Bear Refuge

Otherwise, a fundraising action “Land For Bears”, which aims to raise enough funds for the purchase of more land, continues in Kuterevo. “We don’t have big demands but we’ve come to the point where the next step needs to be made – lease or purchase extra land – to accommodate the bears already in trouble at various zoos or private keeps”.

Bear cub found outside
the village of Kuterevo
looking for food and mother

At the rear of the two existing sanctuaries lies forest wilderness with wild bears that pose a threat to the abandoned domesticated ones. The sanctuaries are thus walled off with simple chain-link fences, which allow the resident bears to roam freely beside, but not into, the village.

Hungry bear cub outside
village of Kuterevo to
find a home as the Bear Rescue

Kuterevo Bear Refuge

A volunteer from France, Amelie Jaquet, said other European countries should follow Croatia’s lead if they have any native bears left.
“When you come here to help, you actually realize that something is wrong in your own country,” Jaquet said. “We killed all the bears and we do not know how to live with nature anymore.”

Signposts left by visitors at
Kuterevo Bear Rescue

In Croatia around 1000 bears live in the wild. The bears living in Croatia are a part of the Dinaric (land mass/mountain chain spanning across Southern Europe) bear population, estimated to be around 3,000. The bear is biologically classified as a rare species. The limited size of the available habitat and the large space the bears require, prevent any significant further growth of the bear population.

Playful brown bears at
Kuterevo Bear Rescue

The mountains do connect people and a testament to that are the Kuterevo Bear Refuge planned activities for 2015 in which the Refuge will participate at the end of summer in the big EU sponsored project (Erasmus and European Commission) – youth education exchange program in which tradition and alternative ways of life, global problems and local solutions are to be addressed and researched.

In winter, before they go away
to sleep – checking the frozen
pond at Kuterevo Bear Rescue

So, anyone wanting a bear hug, a gratitude from a saved cub, Kuterevo and Velebit area of Croatia might just be the place for you. A feel-good story in any case. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)