When poachers shot and killed a black bear mother, her baby, Daboo was too young to open his eyes. The poachers put it in a sack and were about to sell it to baiters when the baby bear was rescued and taken to an animal sanctuary in Islamabad.
“He was a little baby bear that was stolen from his mother; in fact, his mother was murdered,” said Rina Satti, chairperson at Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB), where he is being nursed back to health.
Though banned, bear-baiting persists in some parts of Pakistan and, at the time of his rescue, two-month-old Daboo was half-starving and suffering from scabies and a serious ear infection.
Now, two months on filled out and with a glossy black coat, he plays in his wooded sanctuary, taking baths and nibbling at the fruit and vegetables scattered among shrubs as his carers try to teach him how to fend for himself.
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According to details, the authorities hope to release him, microchipped, back into the wild when he turns one, near the Line of Control in Kashmir that separates Pakistan and India, where he was caught.
“We will take him to his habitat, but we will not just leave him there,” said IWMB caretaker Anees Hussain. “We will have to keep monitoring him for some time to ensure that he can survive there.”