The heartbreaking story of Europe's brown bears
It is deeply sickening.
The way brown bears have been treated across the planet - over thousands of years - is one of the most damning examples of humanity’s disdain for the natural world.
Across the globe - and especially across Europe - their homes have been carved to pieces and their populations culled en masse. They’ve been baited, beaten and slammed into cages to spend their lives tortured and performing for grim human amusement.
A simple map of Europe paints the picture in gory detail. In the UK, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland there is not a single surviving wild bear. Not one.
And every casualty behind each of those bloody extinctions was a creature who was truly, undeniably marvellous.
Brown bears are remarkably intelligent - cubs spend years with their mothers learning everything from fishing to finding the plant foods available in each season. They possess one of the most complex brains relative to their size and have more muscle than they know what to do with - allowing them to thrive in forests or steppes or tundra.
But that muscle was futile against human traps, guns and persecution. Almost every bear that wasn’t hidden in deep forests is now dead. The final few in Europe are clinging on in shrinking scraps of habitat and - without help - their chances of surviving this onslaught look slim.
If we want a natural world with brown bears - real bears free from metal cages - then we must help save them. We must not lose them from Europe.
Around a third are hidden away in Romania’s forests, and it’s here that turning their fate around is feasible. Despite centuries of devastation, we now have a realistic hope, with realistic plans. Local people are on board with our project, and we’ve got the expertise to protect the bears.
We just need to secure the forest.
And - through your donations today - we could help do that. We want to help purchase vital land and put up strategic fences to keep the forest and the people who live by it safe. That way we can protect these bears, and give them the safety they’ve needed for generations.
Humanity is irrefutably the villain of this centuries-old tragedy but - with the help of local communities and people like you - we have one last chance to change that, and be the heroes who come through at the end.
Please help save brown bears. If everyone reading this donates just £3, you could help end centuries of suffering and keep bears free and thriving in the wild. Thank you.
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