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Refugee Bear From Bombed-Out Private Zoo In Ukraine Finds New Home In Scotland


Yampil gets used to his new home at the Five Sisters Zoo near Edinburgh.
Yampil gets used to his new home at the Five Sisters Zoo near Edinburgh.

An unlikely refugee from the war in Ukraine -- a rare Asiatic black bear -- arrived at his new home in Scotland on January 12 and quickly enjoyed a meal of cucumbers and watermelon. The 12-year-old bear was one of the few survivors found by Ukrainian troops in an abandoned bombed-out private zoo. The troops found the bear, renamed Yampil for the village in the Donetsk region where he was discovered, after they recaptured the city of Lyman in 2022, said Yegor Yakovlev of the international charitable fund Save Wild, who helped the bear find a new home.

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