Public donations went towards the almost \u00a3218,000 raised for their transport and the brand new space for the pair.<\/p>\n
An upstairs viewing area, closed while the bears acclimatise, is expected to open next week if the brothers are deemed ready for visitors. A downstairs viewing area is expected to open next month. <\/p>\n
Public donations went towards a brand new enclosure for the pair<\/p>\n
The brothers were kept in a holding pen while they acclimatised (credit: Cameron Noble)<\/p>\n
The bears were kept in a holding pen while they got used to their new life on the island but have now been released into the new 3,500sqm (11,483 sqft) space in-keeping with their natural environment.<\/p>\n
Benji and Balu can now enjoy their new enclosure<\/p>\n
The sanctuary said: “A few tentative steps turned to utter joy and delight.<\/p>\n
“Years of significant challenges, incredibly hard work and a massive amount of fundraising all suddenly became worth it for this one moment of pure joy.<\/p>\n
“Tears all round… thank you to every single person that has played a role in this rescue – this is why we do what we do.”<\/p>\n
They were first relocated by the Azerbaijan government from a restaurant to a temporary shelter<\/p>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/9dce73b0-4df3-11f0-b3d1-27126d8691d8.jpg.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Benji is getting to grips with life on the island<\/p>\n
About two years ago, the bears were relocated by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan from a restaurant, where they had been kept to attract customers, to a temporary shelter.<\/p>\n
Wildheart Animal Sanctuary started fundraising to rehome the bears having become aware of their situation in May 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sanctuary said there were “tears all around” as the bears got to know their new home A…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-4421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114725337454914677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}