A refugee bear from a bombed-out Ukraine zoo finds a new home in Scotland

LONDON (AP) — An unlikely refugee from the war in Ukraine — a black bear — arrived at his new home in Scotland on Friday and quickly took to a meal of cucumbers and watermelon.

The 12-year-old Yampil was named for the village in the Donetsk region where he was found in a bombed-out zoo by Ukrainian troops in 2022. He was one of the few animals to survive.

Other animals were killed in the fighting, starved or eaten by Russian soldiers, said Frederik Thoelen, a biologist at the Nature Help Center in Belgium where the bear spent the past seven months.

“The whole village was destroyed, including the local zoo,” Thoelen said. “Yampil was the only bear that was still alive.” The zoo had held four or five.