Muki, a male European brown bear was born in 2000 and was caught as a young cub from the forest. He was kept for 10 years in a cage behind a hotel and restaurant in a small village in the north of Romania, where his owners had used him as an attraction for hotel and restaurant guests. He lived in an old cage with nothing to play with or occupy him. He had nothing to do all day except eat, and as there was plenty of leftover food from the restaurant Muki became very overweight and by the time he was rescued he weighed over 350 kilos. Normally, brown bears of his age would weigh only 200 kilos.
The restaurant owners at first refused to let Muki be taken to the sanctuary as they claimed they were caring for the bear and feeding him well. But the Romanian authorities enforced the confiscation of the bear and Muki was brought to the Zarnesti bear sanctuary in October 2010. There he was given a quarantine den to hibernate in over winter, after which he would be moved into one of the main forest enclosures with the other bears.
