Brown Bears Eating Fruit
Earlier this year I won a trip with Oyster Worldwide to volunteer at Eastern Europe’s largest bear sanctuary in Romania.
Oyster Worldwide’s Romanian bear volunteering experience attracts a mix of gap year students, adventure travellers and others seeking a career break. My fellow volunteers were both gap year students taking a break from study and looking for a unique experience! For me, it was the very first time I combined travelling and volunteering on my mini ‘career-break’ in Romania.
As a glampacker based in London, I’m used to travelling on a budget around Europe. However my travel itinerary usually involves visiting museums, eating and drinking the local specialties. Nevertheless I was ready to experience my own volunteering overseas adventure with an open mind!
Inside Eastern Europe’s largest bear sanctuary
Not in glamourous clothing, but dressed for the bears!
Romania is home to over 6,000 brown bears. Unfortunately brown bears have been victim to human exploitation, held captive in restaurants and, even a monastery, as tourist attractions. The plight of Maya inspired the creation of the bear sanctuary. Maya was a beautiful brown bear who was put down after stress-induced illness caused by a life of captivity in a Rasov restaurant. The sanctuary is now run by a dedicated, animal-loving Romanian couple with a small team of staff and volunteers.
The sanctuary is huge! It’s set over 20 hectares over natural forest so it’s almost like the bears are living in the wild! The two main enclosures are home to over 50 brown bears, plus there is also a quarantine area for newly rescued bears and separate individual enclosures for Ursula, a Tibetan bear, and Max, a blind brown bear.
Up close with a Brown Bear
Meeting the Romanian brown bears
Brown bear, brown bear – what’s your name? All the brown bears names are sign posted on the electric fences – they are live electric fences and they do hurt – but how do you know the difference? Each of the bears have their own personalities. They are super smart and even recognise the truck which delivers their food, are picky enough to separate the green grapes from the purple grapes and love a swim in their wading pool to cool down on a warm day.
Fruit for the bears
What’s it like volunteering at a bear sanctuary in Romania?
Glampacker raking weeds at the bear sanctuary
Every day is completely different and there is no such thing as a typical day! On some days you’re outside raking and doing maintenance and on other days you’re inside preparing food for the bears. This involves a delicious combination of meat, dairy, bread, fruit and vegetables – a very balanced diet! It’s not for the weak stomached though – the food is all donated and can be slightly off – but having a sense of humour and remembering it’s all in the name of the bears will keep your smile on!
Yoghurt mess - bears love eating this!
The bear sanctuary isn’t currently open to the public though its aim is to be self-sufficient soon. Seeing the brown bears now living a peaceful life, often after years of exploitation, is really amazing. I came in every morning at the sanctuary greeting the bears like they were my friends…even if they looked at me hungrily sometimes!
I admit that I fell in love with the brown bears – they are inquisitive, smart and gentile creatures. Volunteering in Eastern Europe at a bear sanctuary in Romania was a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget!
The great part about volunteering with Oyster Worldwide was being able to volunteer and contribute to an important cause during the day and still have plenty of time to sightsee, eat, drink and explore the local town of Brasov and area during my free time.
Brasov old town from above
