It was summer, earlier this year, when life totally changed for a senior bear named Napa.
The roughly 20-year-old bear had been living in a concrete enclosure at a zoo in Serbia ever since 2009, when the country banned the use of wild animals in circuses.
Even though Napa had only known a life of coercion — being forced to perform for audiences — and confinement, having lived in cages all his life, even after retiring from the circus — people at Four Paws International were determined to give the bear the natural kind of life he never got to know before.
And for the bear who suddenly had so much lush space to roam, it probably seemed like nothing could make his new home any more beautiful and joyful than it already was.
But then it snowed.
Earlier this month, as the weather turned colder, the picturesque sanctuary was dusted with a few inches of snow. And Napa couldn’t be happier about it.
As little flakes swirled around him, Napa was caught on camera playing happily with a big log and then trying to do a somersault in the snow, with the carefree attitude of a cub.
“We are not so sure yet if Napa will be able to hibernate this winter or not, as it might take a year for him to get used to his new environment,” Jeta Lepaja, spokesperson for Four Paws, told The Dodo. “But as in Arosa winter will be cold and snowy he might actually go through [the] process.”
Given Napa’s response to the first snow of the season, there’s little doubt he’ll love his first winter of freedom at his gorgeous sanctuary — even if he ends up sleeping through it.