Dancing Bear Facts

Finally for my Week of the Bear here are some dancing bear facts.

• Dancing bears are usually taken as very small cubs with the majority of them being captured and mutilated at 1 years old or younger.
• The people who capture and train the bears in Pakistan and India are called 'madaris'. Although the practice is illegal it still goes on.
• Holes are burned through the bar's noses and ropes are threaded through. Pulling on the rope is one way to make the bears dance.
• Bears are forced to dance up to 12 hours per day and their training is mainly managed through pain and starvatin.
• Most bears live less than a third as long as they would have done in the wild.

So I hope you have enjoyed my Week of the Bear (if enjoy is the right word?!?). Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

Next week we have the Week of the Lion.

Dulcie
xxx

Dancing Bears Footage

All

I promised you some dancing bear facts but unfortunately I am bringing you far more today. I debated long and hard with myself about whether to post a video of dancing bears. My thoughts against it were twofold. Firstly I didn't want to offend, and make no mistake these images are offensive. Secondly I was concerned that the images I brought you may have, at some point, benefited financially from the video.
I eventually decided to post the video. I decided that, though offensive, this issue is real and not one which the Born Free Foundation shy away from. I also found a clip which was produced and posted on You Tube by the World Society for Protection of Animals so hopefully no-one is benefiting financially from the footage.

So in my next post I will be bringing you some facts about the treatment of dancing bears but in advance of that here is a video from the WSPA.Please don't watch this if you think it may upset you.

Dulcie

Bear Facts

So we have dealt with a few light hearted and heart breaking beary bites but here are the bare facts. (See what I did there? I am soo witty - bear facts/ bare facts!Haha.)

Bears are characterised by their shaggy coats, short tails and their ability to walk with both heel and sole touching the ground.

There are seven different species of Bears:
1. Malayan Sun Bear
2. Sloth Bear
3. Specticled Bear
4. American Black Bear
5. Brown Bear or Grizzly Bear
6. Polar Bear
7. Asiatic Black Bear

In my story, Meena is a sloth bear.

Bears are native to North America, Europe, Asia and Antarctica and can be carnivores, herbivores or omnivores depending on what food is most readily available to them.

Though most people know that a baby bear is called a cub, not many people know that a female bear is a sow and a male bear is a boar!

Bears usually have cubs in litters of around four and hibernate for up to five months.

In my next post I will be getting back to the nitty gritty of dancing bears so bring your hankies!

Thanks for reading

Bears and Ballerinas

Everything is inspired by something right? It can be a bit traumatic to be a writer and suddenly realise that there is actually no such thing as a completely original story but once you come to terms with that terrifying fact it is actually quite liberating. You no longer feel the unrealistic pull of having to write something new and you can be inspired by what has already been written.

Most writing is influenced by everything a writer has seen, heard or read.All of this combines to create a writer. My story Meena was inspired by just one tale, The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Anderson.

The Red Shoes is the tale of a peasant girl who grows up vain and tricks her adoptive mother into buying her a pair of red shoes. She repeatedly wears the shoes to church, without paying attention to the service.

When her adoptive mother becomes ill the girl deserts her, preferring to attend a party in her red shoes. Once she begins dancing, she can't stop. The shoes take over. She cannot control them and they are stuck to her feet.

The shoes continue to dance, through fields and meadows, rain or shine, night and day. An angel appears to her, condemning her to dance even after she dies, as a warning to vain children everywhere.

The story actually continues far beyond this point but this is the section of it on which Meena is based.

In the movie version of The Red Shoes a ballerina dances to her death.

Meena is a bear cub who longs for more. She dreams of leaving her family to have adventures and her curiosity leads to her being captured. Her captors bring her up as a dancing bear. To find out if she dances to her death you will have to buy the book ;-)

Coming soon..... a few basic facts about bears. See you then!

Dancing Bears and the Born Free Foundation

My story in Gentle Footprints is called Meena and is about a dancing bear.

Despite the cheery sounding name, dancing bears are abused animals. They are often taken from their mother at a very young age and reared by their captors with one aim; to make them money.

One of the most common bears to be captured for this purpose across Asia is the sloth bear. The sloth bear can measure up to 1.9 metres and weigh up to 140g. Despite their weight and height they have a teddy bear look due to their long, shaggy coat and white U shaped marking on its chest. Sloth bears are nocturnal by nature.

It is particularly heartbreaking when the mothers and cubs are seperated as there is a strong bond between them, with sloth bears being the only bear to carry its cubs on its back. The cubs stay with their mother for up to three years.

The sloth bear is classed as a vulnerable species and there is thought to be less than 10,000 left.
Although dancing bears have been banned in India for over 40 years it is thought that there are still around 600 on the streets.

Dancing bears are reared and 'tamed' with a cruel hand and their treatment includes having holes burnt through their noses through which a rope can be threaded, regular beatings, removal of their teeth and claws and being forced to stand on hotplates to make them dance.

International Animal Rescue, supported by the Born Free Foundation, are working to rescue dancing bears and take them to their bear sanctury in Bannerghatta. Here a clinic is also being built where vets can help the rescued bears.

Still to come this week I will share some bear facts with you but tomorrow I will be telling you a bit more about my story Meena.