Bears Just Want to Have Fun! Brown Bear Iris Plays with Logs [Video]

Ready for a big long “aww”–fest, Green Monsters? Then check out this video from Animals Asia, that depicts Iris – a Eurasian brown bear – wrestling with a clump of dry leaves and tackling logs to her heart’s content!

Sadly, this light-hearted playtime was never available to Iris during her former life as the inmate of a horrific bear bile farm in the Shandong province of China. Here, she was incarcerated and subdued by means of a “full metal jacket” – a device that constantly drained the bile out of her gall bladder and caused her horrific pain. Iris was rescued from the farm in April 2010, but according to her caretakers in Animals Asia’s China Bear Rescue Centre, she still bears scars around her stomach where the jacket disfigured her.

In spite of her horrific past, however, Iris is playful, highly spirited, and dearly beloved by all of her caretakers. Heidi Quine, bear manager at the CBRC, says: “Iris doesn’t dig as much as other brown bears but I have not seen a log that is a match for her claws – she just loves shredding and chewing wood!”

To find out how you can help end bear bile farming, read this OGP article on the issue or check out Animals Asia’s tips. And if you want to watch Iris doing what she loves best – “shredding and chewing wood” – just sit back and enjoy the video:

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