Wind Storm Extraordinarie Hits WI, Saving Bears in Istanbul, Turkey

Our blog has always been about the day to day work we are doing at REGI. A few days ago a friend, Wildlife Veterinarian, Ahmet Emre Kütükçü posted a beautiful video depicting some of his wildlife work, at Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center of Turkey . The center is located near Istanbul, Turkey. Too often as we focus on the wildlife problems in the U.S. we remain blissfully unaware of the important work unfolding in other countries. I wanted to bring the video to REGI blog readers to raise awareness of wildlife woes throughout the world. I taught classes in Wildlife Rehabilitation at the University of Ankara several years ago. The Wildlife Veterinarians and Rehabilitators in Europe and Eurasia work hard, just as we in North American do to make a difference for wildlife.

Saving Bears video. The story below was submitted by Ahmet to explain what is happening.
Ahmet writes:
"A villager called Necmettin Alper, who had gone to the forest to pick chestnuts on October 21, 2010, witnessed a brown bear trapped in a wire trap designed to trap wild boars in Samandere village of Duzce province in north-western Turkey. He notified the local directorate of Environment & Forestry for the rescue of the bear. The local directorate got in touch with the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation team of Turkey. The team had made its preparations and left Istanbul at 4.00 am in the morning to rescue the bear. They arrived at Duzce at 6.30 in the morning and met with the local directorate members to reach the location where the bear trapped. They arrived at the village of Samandere driving along muddy roads under heavy rain and reached the location. They had to hike about 1 km in the forest to reach the bear.

A brown bear of an estimated weight of 250 kg was identified and seen that it was trapped in a wire trap designed for wild boars mostly. The team started their preparations apply the anesthesia. Meanwhile the bear got very aggressive. It was quite tough for the team since the vegetation was very dense and covered with bushes and rhododendrons. They had to climb up a tree in order to get a better sight to shoot the bear. The bear was shot three times with the dart gun He went to sleep in a few minutes. The local directorate team and villagers helped the rescue team. A thick wire cable caught the bear in his thick hide in the midsection. The bear had no long lasting injuries in part because the bear was very fat for the winter hibernation. Therefore the wire did not hurt the muscles or the tissues of the bear. The team cut the wire and rescued the bear.
The bear was trapped at least for a day, tired, hungry and thirsty. In order not to keep the bear under anesthesia, the team injected the anti sedan for the quick reversibility of the bear. The bear woke and went on with his life.
Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center of Turkey was established by KuzeyDoga Society, Turkish Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks and BTC Co. Environmental Investment Programme.

We are still having very strong wind storms in our area. Our Internet connection is often compromised because of the storms. If you have contacted REGI and not heard back please call again. Thank you for your patience. There will be many rescues due to the storm within the next few days.

Marge Gibson 2010