site.btaBelitsa Bear Sanctuary Reopens to Visitors on April 14

The bear sanctuary near the southwestern town of Belitsa will reopen to visitors on April 14, the sanctuary’s team said on Facebook on Thursday. All but four of the 15 bears have already awoken from hibernation. 

The Belitsa Bear Sanctuary was closed to visitors in late November 2024 to allow for the peaceful hibernation of the bears.

Among the bears still in hibernation is 24-year-old Jetta, who slept the longest the previous winter, 166 days, the sanctuary’s team also said. Among those already awake is the oldest bear in the sanctuary, 35-year-old Svetla, who went into hibernation in October 2024. One of the youngest bears, 9-year-old Riku, hibernated for the first time this winter. 

Before being rescued from their life in captivity, none of the bears had the opportunity to hibernate due to traumatic events and inappropriate living conditions. The fact that they now dig dens and sleep the winter days away is evidence of the return of their suppressed wild instincts amid the natural habitat at the sanctuary, the team noted.

The Belitsa Bear Sanctuary (formerly the Belitsa Dancing Bears Park) is the biggest bear sanctuary in Europe and also a tourist attraction with thousands of Bulgarian and foreign visitors a year. It encompasses an area of 120,000 sq m some 12 km away from Belitsa, an area that is a natural home to the brown bear, a protected species in Bulgaria. The park was established back in 2000 by the Four Paws global animal welfare organization jointly with France’s Brigitte Bardot Foundation to provide a sanctuary for the re-adaptation of bears forced to dance for entertainment. All registered dancing bears in Bulgaria have since been saved. Among the 15 bears at the sanctuary are rescues from Serbia, Albania, Romania, and North Macedonia. 

Once it reopens on April 14, the Belitsa Bear Sanctuary will welcome visitors every day from 12 to 5:30 p.m.