Bears no longer a sight at Czech castles from 2030
If you’ve ever visited the UNESCO-listed castle in the picturesque South Bohemian town of Český Krumlov, you can’t have failed to notice the brown bears living in the former moat of the castle complex. These ursine dwellers won’t be on display for too much longer however – after years of campaigning by animal welfare organisations, the National Heritage Institute has decided to end the centuries-long tradition by 2030. Český Krumlov is planning to seek an exemption.
The keeping of bears at Czech castles has been a tradition since at least the second half of the 16th century. But in recent years, animal welfare organisations such as Bears in Mind, Four Paws, and the German Foundation for Bears (Stiftung für Bären) have received numerous alerts, usually from tourists visiting the castles, about bears being kept in inappropriate conditions.
Since 2021, Bears in Mind and Foundation for Bears have been actively investigating and petitioning the Czech National Heritage Institute to end this practice, and have now achieved an important milestone – the National Heritage Institute has announced that it will be ending the keeping of bears at all castles in Czechia by 2030.
However, Český Krumlov castle plans to seek an exemption from the ban, in light of its nearly 400-year-long tradition of breeding and keeping bears, says castle warden Pavel Slavko.
“I have already made enquiries at the Environment Ministry about getting an exemption. Apparently, we would need to be certified as a Rescue Station. There is strict EU legislation about the requirements for receiving this status, especially in terms of space. But we will strive to get it. We would be proud to be a rescue station.”
According to animal welfare organisations, castle moats cannot meet the requirements for a species-appropriate bear enclosure, as they lack the appropriate size, security and structure for the animals to follow their natural species-specific behaviour, such as undisturbed hibernation, running, climbing and digging.
Furthermore, campaigners say the bears lack appropriate stimulation from their natural environment, having only bare stone walls to stare at, and have limited possibilities to retreat from extreme heat, rain, and other weather phenomena, as well as visitor noise and artificial lighting at night. This results in the animals exhibiting stereotypical signs of stress, such as constant pacing back and forth or walking in circles.
But Jan Míša Černý, the bearkeeper at Český Krumlov castle, disagrees that the animals are unhappy there.
“They are very happy here. They have an environment that’s suitable for them. They’re not here as a punishment – we saved them. They’re very lucky that they found a home here in Krumlov, because otherwise they would have ended up in some three-by-three-metre cage and been made to perform like monkeys at the circus.”
Černý is correct in that two of the three bears in Český Krumlov, seven-year-old Polyxena and Vilém, were rescued as babies when customs officials at Prague airport discovered them being illegaly transported from Russia in 2017. And it is true that at that time, bears were still legally allowed to be kept as circus animals – the ban on the breeding and acquisition of wild animal species in Czech circuses only came into force in 2022. But whether that would have been the fate of Polyxena and Vilém had they not been taken in by Český Krumlov is likely just speculation on Černý’s part.
Now the plan is for the bears to be relocated to proper sanctuaries abroad, for example in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, which bearkeeper Černý doesn’t think will be good for them.
“They’ve been here since they were little babies, they’re used to the environment here. If they’re suddenly taken and transplanted somewhere else in a new environment with older bears, it will stress them out and they’ll find it difficult to adapt.”
Markéta Slabová, spokeswoman for the local heritage administration in nearby České Budějovice, also thinks that the bears live in satisfactory conditions at Krumlov castle.
“It’s a sanctuary for animals seized by the state authorities from illegal breeders and smugglers. These animals have no other possibility for a dignified life. They are cared for by a trained and experienced veterinarian and the Regional Veterinary Administration regularly checks the conditions, how the bears are treated, what their state of health is and what they are fed.”
At present, there are bears at four castles in the Czech Republic – three brown bears in the castle moat at Český Krumlov (in addition to Polyxena and Vilém, 30-year-old Marie Terezie also lives there), one Asiatic black bear at Konopiště castle, a brown bear at Náchod castle and two brown bears at Točník castle.
