Dasha and Bryansk

Despite the fact that Bryansk and Dasha had lived with people as domestic pets their entire lives, they had quite different characters. No sooner had we released Dasha into the woodland enclosure than she ran and hid in the undergrowth in the farthest corner of it so as to escape any possible human contact. Bryansk was quite the opposite and he behaved just like a normal domestic cat, actively seeking human contact — for example, he would not drink water from a natural source, but preferred to eat and drink from a bowl.

The Centre allows animals to be rehabilitated in comfort so that they can get to know their surroundings at their own pace and this environment is as close as possible to what they will experience in the wild.

Once the animal has developed satisfactorily physically, we can then move on to its behavioural rehabilitation which involves the absolute minimum of contact with humans so that it can develop its hunting and life skills.

In autumn, Dasha and Bryansk underwent tests in the Centre and were deemed ready for release into the wild: they were physically healthy and were able to hunt both large and small prey as well as avoid contact with humans. The animals were released in the Pozarym nature reserve.