Chowti’s first taste of freedom
Feb 9, 2011
© WSPA
Recently saved from the horrors of bear baiting, Chowti is now living a life of peace and tranquillity at the WSPA-funded Balkasar sanctuary.
Chowti was one of four bears that Fakhar-i-Abbas founder of the Bioresource Research Centre (BRC), had identified as most in need of rescuing from a life of bear baiting. Severely underweight, Chowti’s wounds never had time to heal between fights – Fakhar was desperate to help her before it was too late.
Thankfully the six year old blind Asiatic black bear was rescued, and is now recovering from her wounds and enjoying the serenity of a spacious new enclosure.
Chowti’s vulnerable state and unfamiliarity with the bears already resident at Balkasar means that, for the moment, she has her own five acre enclosure, which she is getting to terms with exploring – and enjoying.
First tentative steps of discovery
Although it took 40 minutes for Chowti to move out of her quarantine area into the main enclosure, due to her blindness and terrible previous life experience, she was eventually coaxed out with some food into her spacious new home.
Dr. Fakhar-i-Abbas, founder of BRC, described the release of Chowti into her first ever home free from fear and torture. “At first she was very hesitant, only coming into the enclosure with a trail of food and would not go deep within, preferring to stay close to the periphery. Though there was no real tangible obvious gesture, I could just sense the change in Chowti, seeing her for the first time walking without any chain, wound or restriction, savouring her first real bite of freedom in her life”.
As close to nature as possible
© WSPA
Chowti took time to timidly explore her new home using her sense of smell to familiarise herself and sticking to structures and borders. The enclosure has been designed to contain as many features and comforts of a bear’s natural habitat as possible; an unimaginably rich environment for a deprived bear like Chowti. The enclosure features two pools and around one-hundred small trees amongst which the bear can cool off from the Pakistani heat, both man-made and natural climbing structures to explore, and shaded areas made from dried grass which Chowti is using to make her bedding with.
Though Chowti now has the possibility to forage for food, at present her diet is fully provided by Balkasar staff who are feeding her with a varied diet of lentils, different grains, aniseed, millet, potatoes, apples, corn, chicken, carrots, sugar cane and boiled eggs. Staff say that the bear has developed a great interest in exploring acacia shrubs.
One step closer to ending bear baiting
The rescue of bears like Chowti is only possible thanks to generous donations from WSPA supporters. Although Chowti remains alone in her enclosure for the moment, Fakhar and his team are determined to rescue all of the 70 bears still suffering a life of bear baiting in Pakistan and give all of them a home in the WSPA-funded Balkasar sanctuary.
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