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China Page 3: PANYU
We took a day trip to a bear sanctuary in Panyu in June 2001. Having contacted a group called Animals Asia about doing some volunteer work, we were invited along on a tour. The sanctuary houses moon bears who have been rescued from unbelievably inhumane treatment on bear farms (where their bile is extracted for use in traditional medicines).
Panyu
Panyu is a town a little way up the Pearl River from Hong Kong. The ferry ride is about two hours, with not much to see except freight vessels on the river and industrial sites and loading docks along the river banks. Panyu is mainly just an ugly industrial town, but we glimpsed an interesting temple atop a nearby mountain, and the countryside in the area is hilly and probably pretty nice once you get away from the more populated areas. It's fairly rural anyway -- the business next door to the bear sanctuary is a duck farm (some ducklings got into the sanctuary through a drain once a few years back, were promptly eaten, and are clearly remembered by the one bear who even now spends a lot of time watching that drain opening expectantly).
The Moon Bears
These are Asiatic Black Bears, called Moon Bears because of the prominent crescent-shaped marks on their chests. They're around 250-350 pounds and 5 or 6 feet tall when they stand up. They're omnivorous, but eat mainly a sort of grainy bear chow at the sanctuary, with plenty of fruit and honey treats which they clearly love (there's no meat on the menu, due to the delicate sensibilities of their human hosts; the bears don't seem to mind eating vegetarian, but you can tell that a duck once in a while would go over big). By the way, sorry if the bears look like big fuzzy black lumps in our photos; had low light and long lens. Of course, they essentially are big black fuzzy lumps, so it's ok.
Observing them, we were most impressed by two things about the moon bears: their (mostly) gentle and playful demeanor, and their dexterity with their paws. Now, gentle doesn't mean we didn't make sure to keep out of reach while feeding the bears their treats, but it's remarkable how even-tempered they are given the sort of brutal treatment they received in the bear farms. They were very delicate about taking the food from our fingers through the bars of their cages, and once outside in their semi-wooded enclosure they seem to really enjoy playing with toys, wrestling, and chasing each other around. And tracking down the fruit and honey, of course. We decided that if we were naming one we'd call it Trundle.
They also have a real tendency to use those dextrous paws (to pick up a piece of food, say), even when they don't need to -- they reminded us a little bit of giant raccoons. One bear in particular spent a lot of time wading for apple pieces, walking on his hind legs and using his front paws to fish the apples out of the water. These bears are said to be quite intelligent, and they certainly seem to have individual personalities. One liked wading for apples in the pool, one sat at the edge using his paw to wash the apple bits toward himself, a certain pair spent the whole time wrestling and chasing each other, while the old man of the bunch was happy to sit on his tire and quietly chew leaves. They seem to enjoy their newfound semi-freedom - and they're comfortable enough in the sanctuary that one of the females recently did a little hibernating.
Animals Asia
This organization is working toward gradual elimination of the bear farms, and development of larger sanctuaries that can accomodate more rescued bears. For more info, you can visit their website.
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