Brown bear cubs rescued from war zone find new home in Devon zoo
Malenky and Nanuq arrived safely at Wildwood Devon after a rough start
Two brown bear cubs which were believed to have been refugees from the war in Ukraine have moved to their new home in Devon.
Malenky and Nanuq arrived at Wildwood's Devon site after a week on the road, arriving into Devon on Tuesday (May 27th).
The bears are the children of a bear that had been rescued from Ukraine during the midst of the war.
Their mother was initially transported from the frontline near the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv to the Polish city of Poznan before being moved to the De Zonnegloed bear sanctuary in Belgium.
According to conservationists, Malenky and Nanuq were a surprise as they had not expected her to be pregnant.
However, De Zonnegloed was unable to look after the bears due to a lack of resources, reaching out to the Trust to help house them.
On Tuesday, the bears were officially transported over to Devon, and have now settled into their new surrounding.
The trust said the long term goal is to gradually integrate the two new additions step-by-step with the other bears that are housed there.
"Their first interactions were really good; Mish and Lucy another two bears at the site kept themselves at a bit of a distance," the Trust said.
"They can see each other, and they're both acting really calm. We're not seeing any behaviours we would interpret as stressful or nervous or anything like that - it's a really good start."
Members at the Trust have now said that Malenky and Nanuq will be held at the Trust permanently in order to reduce their stress.