A Dangerous Journey

By: David Jackson, Project coordinator, Andean Bear Project

After the week in Santa Martha was over, it was time to transport the bears to their new enclosure in the paramos of Yanahurco. Transporting the bears is the most dangerous part of the reintroduction process, as it is impossible to predict exactly how they will respond to the medications on any particular day.

On the morning of Friday 21st July at 5.30am, the BBC team and their cameras arrived at Santa Martha. With their help, Leonardo Arias (project veterinarian), Armando Castellanos (bear biologist and project director) and I tranquilised the bears and put them in transportation cages to be transported to Yanahurco by truck. Now began a long, hard and very stressful journey to Yanahurco. We had hoped that the bears would remain asleep for around 1 and a half to 2 hours. However they woke up after around 45 minutes in the town of Machachi, with still a very long way to go.

Being in the truck with the bears I heard them wake up. They started to scratch frantically at the cage floor and walls. I left them for 3 minutes or so but they didn’t calm down, so I decided we would have to tranquilise them again before they did serious damage to their claws. I flagged down Armando and Leonardo who were following the truck, and we stopped and assessed the situation. We agreed the bears had to be transported asleep due to the reason that damaging their claws would seriously jeopardise their release. We tranquilised the bears once more, and once they were unconscious, we set off once again. Armando now decided to accompany me in the truck to monitor the bears. We decided to remove the cage doors and keep a better eye on the bears. Watching them very closely, we evaluated the very last moment before they were to make substantial movements that could put us in danger, and only at this moment we gave them a further dosage of ketamine. Injections were always accompanied by a sincerely empathetic cry of, “We’re really sorry Leo/ Beto. Soon you will be free.”

Armando and I went through all the emotions during this journey, but could never have imagined how those poor bears must have felt. Many a time we said, “The only way to do this is in a helicopter.” The process has to be a quick one, to reduce the amount of drug administered and the suffering and potential loss of the bears.

The bears proved incredibly resilient to the drug and at one point, nearing the Hacienda, we had a little scare that Beto had died. He showed fitting behaviours followed by a complete lack of movement. At this moment I entered the cage with him and gave him a cardiac massage, a kiss and a prayer. Whether this was a kiss of life or a coincidence of events is irrelevant; Beto suddenly inhaled strongly, and was back with us!!! What a relief!!! From this point, we decided not to give the bears any more drugs, as it had got to a point that injection seemed more dangerous than the bears waking up and damaging their claws.

We soon arrived at Hacienda Yanahurco where a group of British children taking part in the BBC Serious Andes series had built a rehabilitation enclosure ready for the bears. What a marvellous job they had done, in just a week, and under such harsh weather conditions!!! We carried the transportation cages one by one into the entrance of the enclosure, aided by BBC staff and local ‘chagras’ (Andean cowboys). Subsequently we opened the doors to allow the bears to enter their new home.

For the first half an hour or so, Leo and Beto staggered around with a big hangover. After around two hours, they appeared completely fine. This sight gave us such an intense feeling of relief and joy, especially when thinking back to how they were 3 hours previously in the truck. There they were in a completely new environment, surrounded by living plants for the first time in such a long time. This really was a whole new world for them.

We watched as they sniffed around in a state of complete wonder. They were so curious and enchanted by the sounds, smells, objects, temperatures, and landscapes around them. To watch them like this really did convince me that what we were doing was so right for them, and that after all the pains of their journey would eventually come the ultimate pleasure for them… FREEDOM!!!