The bears Boyka and Standy from the animal corner in Lipnik forest park are now celebrities. The reason – the animals were moved from their home in Rousse and are now settling down nicely in the dancing bear park near Belitsa village. There, the siblings are feeling at home with the other bears, basking in the sunlit meadows, taking a dip in the artificial ponds and posing for the cameras of the crowds of visitors coming here. Boyka and Standy are eight years old and had to leave their home in Rousse because living conditions there were not good. Two years ago the Ministry of the Environment attempted to move the beasts from the animal corner to cages in the zoo in Dobrich but the people of Rousse all but rose in rebellion. The municipality intervened as the animals were, in fact, municipal property. Agreement was reached to create a new, more modern park in Rousse with VIP conditions for the beasts to live in and until it is completed the bears will be living in the park near Belitsa. Moving Boyka and Standy was a veritable challenge for the people from the Four Paws foundation. The brother and sister, who weigh 250 and 300 kgs. respectively had to be sedated and separated for the first time in their lives. Now the two live in luxury in conditions meeting all international standards for brown bear habitats. And that means a 170 sq. meter cage, a pool, a lair for hibernation and abundant vegetation with lots of blueberry shrubs. Along with the other 24 animals living in the park, Boyka and Standy are taken good care of by the trained park staff. According to the park keepers, the “new kids in town” are adapting to the situation really well and are fitting into the bear community.

Fishermen along the Bulgarian Black Sea coastline complain every year of damage done to their nets. The culprits are the usual suspects – the pods of dolphins who swim to the shore in search of food. But as it turns out, there is a way to grapple with the problem. The young environmentalists from the Balkans Wildlife Society have started to put up a modern installation that will keep these marine mammals away without doing them any harm. The devices have already been installed on stake nets in the Northern Black Sea coastal waters in the region of Kavarna, Balchik and Kaliakra. The acoustic deterrent devices or pingers as they are also known are in use in many maritime countries in the world. They were put up for the first time in April – the start of the fishing season. Fishermen will fill out forms with daily readings connected with the presence of dolphins in the area and the damages they have inflicted. The survey will last three months and the results will show whether the pingers are suitable for use in Bulgarian coastal waters. The idea is to have acoustic deterrent devices on stake nets at other locations along the Black Sea coastline as well.

And more from the Black sea coast. A study looking into the presence of harmful substances in fish in Bulgaria’s waters, the first of its kind, was completed recently. The study, spanning ten whole years, shows how much organic pollutants and toxic metals are contained in the 10 most widespread species of fish in Bulgarian sea water such as horse mackerel, sprat, goby, Danube herring, grey mullet, red mullet, bonito, garfish. As it turns out, sprats are the most toxin-free of all fish. It is also the cheapest and most popular kind of fish in the country in summer. However, specialists recommend roast rather than fried sprats as roasting burns the small quantities of toxins they contain. The highest concentration of toxins, albeit within threshold limit values, is in the Danube herring which spawns in the polluted waters of the River Danube, and it is there that the fish absorbs the harmful substances. On the whole, Black Sea fish species contain less harmful substances than fish found in the Mediterranean, experts say.

English version: Milena Daynova