A number of Australian zookeepers have taken time off from their day jobs to help orphaned bears in Southeast Asia, victims of the illegal wildlife trade. Seven keepers from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo travelled to Laos to lend their skills at a sanctuary caring for rescued cubs.
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00:00It's back to Taronga Zoo in Sydney for these zookeepers.
00:06They recently returned from Laos, where they volunteered to help vulnerable bear cubs saved
00:11from the illegal wildlife trade.
00:13It was also so heartbreaking because the 18 cubs that were seized and rescued from these
00:18poachers would have all had their mums killed out in the wild.
00:24It's thought that was the world's largest single bear rescue, and the animals would
00:28have been destined for life on an inhumane bear bile farm.
00:32The illegal practice is used to extract chemicals from the gallbladders of bears to be used
00:37in traditional Chinese medicine.
00:39The Australian charity Free the Bears operates in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
00:44It's just had the busiest year in its history.
00:46Our population of bears has gone up by 25% in a single year.
00:51That places huge strain on us from all angles just to look after these animals.
00:56If this continues next year, I do really fear for the future.
00:59Now if you've ever been to Taronga Zoo before, then you very well may have seen the resident
01:03sun bear here, Mary, and it was working with her that inspired the zookeepers to travel
01:07to Laos to volunteer their time and their skills.
01:10Her parents were rescued 17 years ago.
01:12There's a deep connection there, and so I feel like there's a lot of suffering in the
01:17world with animals, and sometimes you feel like there's no hope.
01:20Any way that I can help out is worth it for me.
01:24The team at Taronga has carried out work for the animals to enhance the quality of their
01:28lives at the rescue centre.
01:30We were predominantly making enrichment, so that involved us making things like hammocks,
01:36feeder toys, we even made a barrel raft, which is something that the bears absolutely loved,
01:41and they were able to play with it for ages.
01:45The keepers are planning on making it an annual trip.