Spring came and with it Kuterevo bears have started eating many herbs, visitors are becoming more numerous and new volunteers are joining the work, that is also increasing. Jordi from Nancy (France), volunteering in Vukovar this year, Caroline and Eve from Toulouse (France), Maja and Vesna from Zagreb, Juliette from Paris, Jean from Bretagne (France as well) and Elija from Lithuania came for few days, or few weeks to help in the new season. And to enjoy the every day Postaja life and newly arrived little ducks and geese.

We are working the first enclosure of the refuge, which after 12 years of honorable career needs a full renovation. We took away the old fence, we are putting a new one, and we are building a new giant pool. All these would not be possible without the supervision of our Kuterevo majstor Milan (for us “Wikič”) .

The weather is perfect for work in the gardens, we are preparing the soil and starting to planting garlic, onions, winter salads, and some new trees in the bear botanical garden.

Last week was also the Week of Action for the SCI campain Create a Climate for Peace Here I let you a link on SCI website if you are interesting in what was done, or on Kuterevo volunteers’ blog 🙂

For the bears, we collect a lot of herbs that they like like, Taraxacum off., Sanguisorba of., Plantago major, Nasturtium officinalis. From Zagreb arrived a truck with a ton of carrots and 800 kg of apples. In addition we bought 250 kg of walnuts. In the nature, the bears expend most of their time and energy looking for food. So, for keeping our bears more active, we try to make enrichments for them: we give them some big rotten wood from the forest so they can find insects inside, ice cubes filled with fruits so they spend good time playing and refreshing themselves… and we are preparing some more toys, making holes in pieces of wood and filling them with peanut butter, sun seeds, herbs and fruits.

The volunteer group from the Otoćac High school chose its name: “medvjedi dobrog srca” (bears whit good heart). They came to the refuge to spend a day with us, planting in the garden, making souvenirs and working on the enclosure under reconstruction. We also gave to the bears the herbs they collected the day before in the city.

Ah… I was forgetting… a donation of 200 teddy bears arrived from our friends in Germany with the Kuterevo Bear Refuge logo 🙂 It is possible to buy them when visiting the refuge to support our campaign Land for the Bears aiming to renovate old enclosures and build new ones. We are ready for your visits!

Guaci