Lily, a young Syrian brown bear cub, was found pinned to the forest floor in Armenia with a wire snare tightening around her tiny neck. Trapped for hours, terrified and struggling to breathe, she was running out of time.
After a member of the public raised the alarm, our frontline partners, FPWC, rushed to the scene. They found Lily exhausted, frightened and critically injured. Every minute mattered.
No one knows how Lily became separated from her mother. Female bears are fiercely protective and usually stay with their cubs for years, so whatever happened was almost certainly devastating.
The rescue team sedated Lily so they could safely remove the snare and assess her injuries. The wire had caused severe damage to the flesh around her neck, and the vet also discovered that her canine teeth were missing. Even after treatment, it took Lily a long time to recover from the anaesthetic because of the immense stress her ordeal had caused.
As soon as she was stable, Lily was rushed to the safety of the Urtsadzor rescue centre. There, she received urgent treatment for her wounds before being given the rest she desperately needed. Once she had regained some strength, the team vaccinated her and started her on a high-protein diet with nutritional supplements to support her recovery.
Today, Lily is making encouraging progress. She remains understandably nervous, but she’s growing stronger every day. She has now joined two other rescued cubs in an enclosure where human contact is kept to a minimum. This gives them the best chance to recover, develop the survival skills they need and, one day, return to the wild together.
But Lily’s journey isn’t over.
To give Lily and other rescued cubs the greatest chance of living free again, we urgently need to build a dedicated habitat. This safe, semi-wild environment will allow them to prepare for life in the wild while being carefully monitored and protected from danger.
If you’d like to support Lily’s progress and eventual return to the wild, please donate today.