This blog is to give thanks from the heart to the various members of the team that made such a difficult rescue in China so safe and successful. My admiration for our staff members below is boundless and I make no apologies for such a long, long list, except to say a profuse apology if I have inadvertently left anyone out.

I think it puts the rescue into perspective – as you read about the various components in this well-oiled machine and emphasises, once again, that every single member of Animals Asia across the world makes this foundation what it is today – and I couldn’t be more proud of you all.

Firstly to Toby, assisted by Susan, whose skilful negotiations under extremely hard and frustrating conditions, secured these bears from the farm and made Shandong Province our 20th province to be bear farm free. Simply, without Toby, there would be no bears at all – and he has worked himself ragged over the past few weeks, succeeding where others would have failed.

To Boris for so carefully overseeing all the logistics of the rescue and dealing with the complexities of bears, people and transport. To Angela and team from HK who set up the media and fed out the information required for our team worldwide - and to Carney for all her help throughout the trip in preparation for the website updates and supporter information (and for so expertly cleaning a bears' ear!).

To Hong for kindly helping us to get mobile on the road with chargers and email connections with his now-famous "dongles", to Arvid for helping Ange to download her library of pics, and to Christina in Hong Kong who so patiently helped with everyone's travel arrangements. To our own drivers on the road, Zhang Xiao Bin and Nan Ning, for keeping us safe throughout over 2,300 kms and to the two hired drivers who skilfully backed them up.

To Richard, Jean, Diana, and all admin staff who kindly helped with all the permits, staff rotations and extra cover etc during the time we were away - and made sure that everything was prepared for our return so late at night. To Jackey and maintenance who quickly helped with new cages and all the equipment required. To Rainbow, Sailing and all in Education team for ongoing media and PR cover on the China side (not to mention all their assistance in translations and how much they helped to keep tummies full on the journey!).

To Heather and vet team for all their care and attention before, during and after the rescue and to Howard and the bear team for their super-safe handling of the bears through day and through night, always with a smile.

To Anne, Jude, and Alice representing our country offices for being all things to all bears, and volunteering for any job great or small. To photographer Ali Bullock who, once again, has taken holiday leave from his job to help us and has injected his terrible sense of humour into making a bleak time happier than it was meant to be.

Over to Senior Bear Manager Nic for more thanks:

Whilst our excellent team were off collecting the new bears in Shandong, the team on site in Chengdu were busy preparing for the new arrivals. Rescues always seem to bring the best out in the team and this time was no exception. Among the moving team on the rescue were two of our Bear Team Supervisors Howard and Ai leaving the third Bear Team Supervisor Rocky on site supervising the bear team and doing a three man job plus more. He worked closely with us BMs - Annemarie and I - and seemed often to be one step ahead of us preparing Poly tunnels (quarantine).
Our super hort team put their muscles to good use in cleaning and tidying the area by Poly tunnels and helping the bear kitchen staff move everything from the hospital in preparation for it becoming a quarantine area. Big thanks to Zhen Jin Chuan, Xu Kai Chuan, Xue Zhi Chang, Wu Li Da, Di Bing ErSe, Xu de Yin and Li Fan.

Polys team - TL Tao, 2IC Xie Mie Yang and BW Li Ping have worked together to ensure that all was ready for the new arrivals, cleaning, preparing ice block treats for the bears, familiarizing themselves with the protocols and enrichment calendar. Our bear kitchen team headed by Wen Feng Jun have ensured food, medication and enrichment have been distributed to all our resident bears in a timely fashion.

Vet nurse Caz - the only remaining member of the Vet team on site has been busy keeping check on all 167 bears on site, with veterinary concerns being responded to swiftly following calls from the team. She has been supported by volunteer VN Emma in preparing the hospital as quarantine and preparing everything in surgery rooms just in case.

Our BM volunteer Alina has supported us BM's in keeping things ticking over in day to day management. Whilst Charlie our recently departed BM has been back this week volunteering and helping all of us in any jobs that needed doing - taking pressure of Caz, Anna and I.

Not forgetting the rest of the bear team, several of whom have worked their days off this week to ensure we were covered on site and our wonderful translator team, Wen Yan, Eric, Tina and Ares who have supported all in their preparations, helping organise, buying cleaning equipment, food and many more items with the Purchasing team, liaising closely with our maintenance team to ensure anything that needed fixing for the new arrivals was fixed, lights installed for their night time arrival and much more.

Further thanks to all the support and assistance the bear team has had from the other departments in getting prepared for these bears, Jackey and the maintenance team have been wonderful, Jean, Zhang Ting, Jessica & co in Purchasing have made sure we had everything we needed for the bears; extra food and all. Richard has been great in giving us regular updates from the road. Not to mention Security, Education, HR and kitchen.

And finally from Bear Manager Annemarie:
Last but not least a big thanks to Nic, who has kept all people on site updated about the progress of the rescue at all hours of the day the moment she got off the phone with Heather! She has been in the office before anyone else to stay on top of her computer work so during the day she could focus as much as possible to ensure that everything was organised before the bears arrived. Thanks Nica ;-)