"Sinevir" Brown Bear Rehabilitation Centre
This is probably the most touching stop in the entire Sinevir National Park: a forest sanctuary of more than 12 hectares where brown bears who were once badly let down by people live out their days. The centre opened in 2011 together with the international animal protection organisation "Four Paws", and almost every one of its residents has a cramped cage behind a restaurant, a circus, a roadside photo spot or a private estate in its past.
About three dozen bears live here now, and they can no longer be returned to the wild: they depended on humans for too long. Instead, the centre gives them what they were deprived of, forest, space, a pool to swim in and dens where they can properly settle down for their winter sleep. Each one has its own name and its own story, and the staff tell them willingly, even though they are not always easy to hear.
Viewing platforms have been set up for visitors above the enclosures. The bears live by their own schedule, so the easiest time to see them active is in spring and summer, while closer to winter they quite reasonably decide that sleeping is more interesting than tourists.