Boki underwent pioneering brain surgery last year. Picture: Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
It was decided that brain surgery was the best option for Boki, who went under the knife in October.<\/p>\n
Having been suffering from seizures and other health-related issues, an MRI scan revealed he had a build-up of fluid in his brain and although his condition was initially managed with medication, keepers at the park said it no longer had the same effect.<\/p>\n
World-leading veterinary surgeon Romain Pizzi, who waived his fee for the job, fitted a stent between Boki\u2019s brain and abdomen to help him pass the excess fluid.<\/p>\n
The young bear made a \u201cremarkable recovery\u201d and was weaned off his medication with no adverse effects, just before he went into torpor \u2013 also known as semi-hibernation.<\/p>\n
Staff at Wildwood are delighted with how the reunion went. Picture: Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Boki has now reconnected with his fellow bears Fluff and Scruff, a test that staff at Wildwood said would mark a major moment in his recovery.<\/p>\n
The bears wasted no time reconnecting, and Boki quickly began play-fighting with Scruff just as he had before they were separated nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n
Head of bears at Wildwood, Jon Forde, said the bears seemed to know something was wrong with Boki long before his diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cFluff and Scruff stopped playing with him for the whole season before we knew he was sick \u2013 it\u2019s amazing how intuitive they are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to be certain Boki was strong enough before putting them back together.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Boki (below) has been reunited with Scruff after more than a year. Picture: Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would often sit by the fence line, watching them, so we knew he missed them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we were taken aback by just how much it has lifted all three of them. It\u2019s not just Boki who\u2019s benefited, we\u2019ve seen a positive impact on Fluff and Scruff too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to monitor their interactions carefully, but for now Boki will spend the day with them, then return to his own enclosure overnight, so he doesn\u2019t keep them awake all night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boki had been adopted from Port Lympne Wild Animal Reserve in December 2022, after he was rejected by his mother, and had to be hand-reared by keepers there.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Wildwood said: \u201dWildwood, known for its expertise in bear rehabilitation, helped teach him key bear behaviours and began integrating him with Fluff and Scruff, the bears had been rescued from horrific conditions in a Bulgarian hunting facility over a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the help of Wildwood\u2019s team, the pair have gone on to show natural behaviours like foraging and torpor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved brown bear has reunited with his playmates after a year apart following his groundbreaking brain surgery.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[933,606,47913,609,495,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-103779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-canterbury","10":"tag-herne-bay","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-kent","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114512435657339353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}