UPDATE OCTOBER 2024:

There was a baby bear experience available in Kent at the Wildwood Trust but Boki has grown up now, so this is no longer available.  However - you can still have a bear experience at the Wildwood Trust's Kent site - find out more about it here!

Unfortunately, poor Boki has not been very well, and he's been the first bear in the UK to have an MRI scan (at Fitzpatrick Referrals).  On Wednesday 9th October 2024, he'll have brain surgery with Romain Pizzi, a world leader in his field.  We wish Boki and the team well, and thank the team and everyone for their care of Boki.  Good luck!   You can donate to support here.   Find out more about it all here.

Notes from the earlier blog:

The Wildwood Trust is based in Kent (and Devon, but Boki is in Kent).  The Kent site is home to over 200 native animals, past and present, with bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers among those living in the 40 acres there.  

Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain’s most threatened wildlife, and it's taken part in many conservation initiatives, such as saving the water vole and using wild horses to help restore nature reserves.  It's brought the Euroepan beaver back to Kent and brought the hazel dormouse & red squirrel back to areas where they have been made extinct.

And one of those living at the Wildwood Trust in Kent is Boki!  He's a baby bear whose family sadly rejected him.  He was hand-reared by the team at Port Lympne and now Boki has come home to Wildwood Kent, where he'll learn how to be a bear.

Wildwood report that Boki has settled in well, and for a limited time only, they have a Boki the bear experience, giving you the chance to get close up and personal!  It is uncertain at the moment (April 2023) how long this experience with Boki the baby bear will continue - probably to September 2023 -  partly because of course Boki won't be a baby bear forever but also because he is starting to meet the adult bears and so there may be times when the experience with Boki needs to be suspended for a while.

Please note Wildwood Kent's "Things you need to know before you book" before you book.

Good luck, Boki!

Visit the Wildwood Trust here.

Images © Wildwood Trust