The joyous “tree party” phenomenon has been observed among bears at Animals Asia’s sanctuaries in China and Vietnam. See how these incredible bears share their good fortune.

Staff at Animals Asia’s sanctuaries are duty bound to safeguard the trees at their idyllic locations in China and Vietnam. But when the bears evade the protection and make it up into the branches then it’s tree party time.

Animals Asia founder Jill Robinson explains:

“I’ve seen tree parties take place at both sanctuaries and it’s a joyous experience - once you accept that you have no control and acknowledge that bears damaging trees is, after all, not an unnatural occurrence.

“We know that these bears are solitary in the wild, so it’s hard to imagine this ever happening outside of a sanctuary - certainly I have never heard it reported. But essentially once a bear is up among the branches, they start throwing greenery down for their friends to snack on.

“It always seems a remarkable display of generosity. The bears are not just content to eat their fill from the leaves - they also want their friends to benefit and you soon see a group of bears beneath the tree, waiting for branches to fall. We all just stop what we’re doing, watch the fun and resign ourselves to the fact that a tree will soon be a little worse for wear after all the naughtiness.”

These latest pictures were taken this week at Animals Asia’s Vietnam sanctuary by Senior Vet Mandala Hunter-Ishikawa.

She explains:

“It was Parly who climbed the tree and started throwing down branches for Manga, who had also tried to climb but couldn’t make it past the tree protectors. Seeing the commotion, Amara ambled over and both of the girls were rolling around in all of the new greenery while Parly kept breaking branch after branch. He was having so much fun. 

“Obviously after a while he decided that there was more fun to be had with the party on the ground so he climbed down but was soon back up again. This time he was breaking off even bigger branches. Soon Milagro joined them and it ended up with all four of them partying among all the leaves.

“Ngoc, our translator said they just like to help out the horticultural team and assist with the pruning.”

Animals Asia’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre is home to almost 150 bears rescued from the bear bile industry. There are around 1,200 bears still caged by the bile industry within Vietnam and more than 10,000 more in China. Bear bile is used in traditional medicine. Read more.

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