Black bear ahoy! How a swan boat became an attraction at a British safari park

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Bears on a long journey in Woburn Safari Park

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Woburn Safari Park

It recently rained a lot in Bedfordshire, England. Very much. So much so that the gamekeepers at the safari park in Woburn, an hour's drive northwest of London, discovered a new pond in the bear enclosure one morning. And they got creative. “So we gave the bears their own swan boat so they could go on a voyage of discovery,” the safari park announced in a video that has already been viewed millions of times on social media. “They loved it!”

The bears obviously didn't take long to ask. In the video clip you can see how they carefully approach the swan boat that is bobbing on the edge of the giant puddle. “The ‘sniffing nose’ among the bears was immediately fascinated by the new neighbor and wasted no time in examining the swan pedal boat,” says zookeeper Tommy Babington.

Photos then show how the other bears also lose their fear of the big white bird and board the boat. “It was great fun for the visitors to see them climb on board,” continues Babington, who is also deputy head of the park’s predator division. "We love finding new ways to provide food, smells and habitat enrichment that stimulate their natural searching behavior." He is very happy that the bears find innovation in their 13 hectare forest reserve an interesting addition.

Black bears are very curious by nature

The four younger black bears were particularly interested in the giant swan, the safari park says. They are siblings, two males and two females, who spend a lot of time looking for food, playing, eating and sleeping. The bears are named Harvard, Maple, Colorado and Aspen and are named for their North American origins.

Bears are naturally very curious animals. Last January, a black bear in the US state of Colorado stole a camera and took 400 selfies. In Connecticut, a bear entered a bakery and devoured 60 muffins. The keepers at Woburn Safari Park encourage this curiosity with all kinds of enrichment in their habitat to keep their minds and bodies active.

It is unclear how long the bears' game with the swan boat will last. The pedal boat is just borrowed, it should actually be fitted with new pedals. And how long the lake will last remains to be seen. The safari park draws a very positive interim conclusion: "The swan boat may be a less conventional approach to stimulating their natural behavior, but it was definitely a hit."

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