Hundreds of Romanian people donned their finest genuine bearskin and red tassels as they grunted and swayed their way through a very beautiful ancient pagan parade as part of a traditional New Year’s celebration. Known as the ‘bear dance’, people swayed to the rhythm of drums and melodies of pan flutes through the streets of Comanesti, eastern Romania, on Sunday. According to folklore, the ritual... 

The search continues for a 7-year-old boy missing in the bear-infested mountains of Hokkaido, Japan after being abandoned by his parents as punishment. Some 180 rescuers are involved in the search for Yamato Tanooka. After abandoning the boy as a form of punishment on Saturday, the parents returned to the site shortly afterwards to find he was no longer there, according to a police spokesperson. The... 

The city of Tbilisi has suffered an incessant and torrential downpour that resulted in flooding of the low-land areas of the Georgian capital at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. The death toll has been climbing, with numerous buildings deluged. The death toll so far stands at 12, while 24 people are missing, TASS reports. Bodies were found mostly in flooded private households. There have been reports... 

A Chinese scientist has said that prehistoric man ate the bears in what is now part of the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing. In an interview with The Chongqing Morning Post, Wei Guangbiao, the head of the Institute of Three Gorges Paleoanthropology at a Chongqing museum, said that many excavated fossils “showed that pandas were once slashed to death by man,” The Associated Press reported... 

If the Sarah Mclachlan ASPCA ad for abused animals makes your heart sink, the idea of caged bears kept under inhumane conditions to have their gall bladders milked daily for use as a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might bring you to tears. Even more heart wrenching is a recent report of a mother bear killing her cub and herself to stop a life of continued torture and pain. A bile farm worker in...