Bear cub makes ‘remarkable’ recovery after pioneering brain surgery

A bear cub that underwent pioneering life-saving brain surgery has come out of hibernation and appears to have made a “remarkable” recovery, UK zoo chiefs said on Thursday.

The bear named Boki went under the knife for fluid on the brain in October just before going into hibernation.

Vets had been waiting to observe how Boki would wake up to gauge the success of the surgery, the first of its kind on a brown bear.

“He’s looking brilliant, happy and healthy and we haven’t seen any negative signs from him,” said Jon Forde, head of bears at British conservation charity Wildwood Trust near Canterbury in southeastern England where Boki is kept.

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“All his personality traits are still there — he’s still the same old Boki that we love,” he said.

Medical background

Boki, who turned three during hibernation, had been suffering from seizures.

He was given medication to deal with the swelling and build up of fluid, but vets feared he was unlikely to make it through hibernation without surgical intervention.

A decision to operate was taken, resulting in world-leading veterinary surgeon Romain Pizzi fitting a stent between Boki’s brain and abdomen to help pass the excess fluid.

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Staff at the Wildwood Trust, which also runs a second wildlife park in southwestern Devon, are now focused on helping Boki to build up his strength.

Building Boki’s strength

“Boki did well for his first ever winter sleep. He lost around 30 kilos (66 pounds) — we think a lot of this because he’s actually grown while he was asleep so a lot of energy has been used for that,” Forde said.

“Our first job will be to put some weight back on him,” he added.

Boki was adopted from another UK wild animal reserve in December 2022 after he was rejected by his mother and had to be hand-reared by keepers there.

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Wildwood, renowned for its work with brown bears, had been helping him to learn bear behaviours, partly by integrating him with two adult bears named Fluff and Scruff.

That had to stop as a result of the seizures but keepers would potentially resume the process soon.

Reintegration

Reintroducing him to the other two bears would likely involve “boisterous play” which could be harmful so soon after hibernation but the signs were “very positive”, said head of zoo operations Mark Habben.

“We will monitor him very closely and, at some point over the coming months, we will conduct that introduction if everything continues to go well,” he said, adding that Boki’s transformation had been “remarkable”.

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