Sun bears arrive at Edinburgh Zoo

It’s not often that exotic animals come to Edinburgh but, this week, Edinburgh Zoo welcomed Rotana and Somnang to it’s pack, a couple of Malaysian Sun Bears. The two brothers’ new home is a newly refurbished enclosure which is a long distance from their native Cambodia, almost 6,000 miles away.

After a recent £150,000 refurbishment project to make sure the native South-East Asian bears felt right at home in Scotland, the new visitors are the only pair of their kind in Scotland and are, unfortunately, now a struggling species.

However, Edinburgh Zoo has gone from from strength to strength in recent years thanks to increased donations and a refreshingly forward-thinking approach to conservation, and Rotana and Somnang couldn’t hope for a better home. The pair were rescued in 2004 from a private owner who had cruelly been keeping them both in a tiny cage, but now the bears will thrive as part of a long term breeding loan.

Said to be named after the golden crescent on their chest, it’s not often that a little bit of South-East Asia comes to Edinburgh and, with a lot of activities and initiatives running all summer, Edinburgh Zoo is sticking to it’s goal of safe guarding the world’s rarest species.