Bear cubs move from South Bohemia zoo to Java

Two Himalayan brown bear cubs, born at the Hluboká nad Vltavou Zoo in South Bohemia, are set to move to Batu Secret Zoo on Java. They will be the first Himalayan brown bears in Indonesia.

The two-year-old cubs will depart for Indonesia on Monday and arrive at Jakarta airport two days later, where zoo staff will pick them up. The move follows Batu Secret Zoo's interest in this species, which they discovered through Species360, a global database of animals in human care.

The cubs, born on January 4, 2023, are the second successful birth of Gul, a female Himalayan brown bear from a zoo in Dushanbe. The Himalayan brown bear, a rare subspecies from Central Asia, is critically endangered, but still faces threats from hunting in some regions.