Csángó and Hargita, the “Birthday” Brown Bears

The two young bears made their debut on August 9th, marking the Zoo’s 158th birthday. Their arrival fills a two-year gap, as we last showcased brown bears in the summer of 2022.

The two young bears now live in the enclosure that previously housed our polar bear. Located on the north side of the Little Rock (Kisszikla), this enclosure was originally built in 1912 and significantly expanded in 2006, including the addition of a large pool with a glass wall for visitors to view the bears swimming. In recent weeks, in preparation for the arrival of the brown bears, we updated the enclosure again. Among other improvements, we increased the soil surface available for digging and added various climbing trees and enrichment items to keep the bears engaged.

Csángó and Hargita are both young bears, just three and a half years old. They were born at the Timișoara Zoo (Romania) and later lived at the Veresegyháza Bear Sanctuary (Hungary) before recently joining us. Until now, they had been getting used to their new home indoors, but today marked their first time out in the outdoor rock enclosure. The large pool in the enclosure has been filled to a shallow depth by the keepers since, although brown bears are excellent swimmers, these two have not yet encountered deep water. The bears spent most of the day exploring every nook and cranny of the enclosure, to the delight of visitors, even dipping into the pool for some joyful splashing. The keepers treated the new residents to bear-shaped treats made primarily of oatmeal, decorated with raisins.

Our Zoo has housed brown bears on and off since its opening. In fact, back in 1866, the Zoo’s most popular resident was a brown bear named Kristóf. In his time, Kristóf was a famous bear, with none other than Prime Minister Ferenc Deák as his number-one fan. According to a popular joke in Pest at the time, Deák even read the draft of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise to Kristóf first.