MARY & BRIGHT

There’s something about Mary. “She’s got a lot against her, but she has spirit and the fact that she’s got this far, she’s certainly a survivor,” says Giles Clark as he watches the tiny sun bear take in her strange, new surroundings. Giles is in Laos, South-East Asia, working as a technical advisor for his good friend Matt Hunt, CEO of wildlife rescue charity Free the Bears. The pair are part of a specialist team that is giving animals like Mary a second chance. Named after Free the Bears founder Mary Hutton, this brave little cub has had a lucky escape – she was discovered starving in a rubbish-strewn cage on the back of a truck, heading for Vietnam. A poacher killed Mary’s mother in the wild and it is believed she was destined for a bear bile farm, where the creatures are held in captivity for the primary purpose of extracting their bile and/or gallbladder.

Working with the Laos government, Free the Bears is developing a sanctuary in Luang Prabang to rehabilitate and house animals like Mary that