The birth of a spectacled bear brings joy to a farming community in Peru

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A spectacled bear was born in a rescue center built by a Peruvian farming community that has protected these animals for more than two decades.

The bear cub, which does not yet have a name, was discovered after park rangers in the community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape, in northern Peru, noticed that a female bear named Lola did not leave her den.

“They heard different noises and only these days the little bear has begun to come out with its mother,” said Edivar Carrasco, the president of the community.

Born in mid July, the little bear is the second birth after a female was born six years ago in a fenced area of ??several hectares where food and care are provided to ailing bears.

The farming community manages an ecological reserve where spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) and other animals such as the white-winged guan (Penelope albipennis) are not hunted and can find a safe habitat for their lives in its carob trees and other types of flora.

The spectacled bear is a vulnerable species, according to the Red List of Threatened Species released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

It is known worldwide thanks to Paddington Bear, a children’s storybook character created in 1958 by British writer Michael Bond.