Flora bear passes away, IACM to install a memorial wall

Isabel Celeste Jorge talks with reporters

BoBo, the Asian black bear living in Flora Garden after being rescued in the mid- 1980s from a restaurant located at Rua da Felicidade in central Macau, passed away yesterday morning.

According to information provided by representatives of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) during a press conference held yesterday at the garden, the bear’s health had been deteriorating in the past few days, leaving the bear unable to even feed himself.

BoBo had been suffering from physical conditions which limited his movements and capacity to move around his cage for some time, spending most of his time in the interior sleeping, an IACM caretaker added.

Isabel Celeste Jorge, a member of IACM’s Administration Committee, said that IACM staff were saddened by the death of the animal, noting that he was already 35 years old and that this species usually lives 25 to 30 years.

Jorge also informed that from today, a memorial wall will be installed in front of BoBo’s cage so that “the population of Macau can pay their last homage to the animal.”

When replying to the media, the same official noted that there are no concrete plans on how the space, which had been occupied by the bear for the last 35 years, will be used as “the death was unexpected.” Still, Jorge noted that there are plans to house several small animals “such as guinea pigs and rabbits” in the garden.

When asked what would be done with the body of the animal, Jorge said that “presumably the body of the bear will be embalmed and then will be located in one of the gardens. We are still thinking where the best place would be in order to allow us to continue [the story] and put the focus on animal protection.”

Previously, the Chief of IACM’s Division of Gardens and Parks noted the possibility of BoBo’s embalmed body being displayed in a museum space to be located at Seac Pai Van Park (where a pavilion was built to host the pandas offered by mainland China).

The official at the press conference also said that the space might be used as a “quarantine cage” for other animals, if needed. 

The ‘fake history’ of BoBo

The date inscribed on the plaque near BoBo the black bear’s statue at the Flora Garden is controversial.

According to the story on the memorial, the bear was rescued by a Leal Senado staff member (the municipal authority of the time) in the summer of 1984.

However, the first reports on the baby bear appeared in TDM TV and Va Kio Daily in 1986. Those reports tell a different story.

In 1986, BoBo was found by journalists, and amongst them was the late TDM anchor José Alberto de Sousa who first reported the case to Leal Senado in the course of his investigation, and Harald Bruning who started working in Va Kio at the time.

“I was always suspicious that the date inscribed on the stone was wrong, but I was afraid that my memory was perhaps playing tricks on me. What I remember vividly is the first time I saw the baby bear, it was in a cage outside a restaurant in Rua da Felicidade, where a crowd had gathered to see the exotic animal,” the editor-in-chief of Macau Post told the Times yesterday.

Bruning confirmed that he had had this discussion several times with two other journalists who saw the scene with him and reported the case to the police. Bruning says the rescue of the black bear took place in “the autumn of 1986, which makes sense because that is the season when those restaurants in Rua da Felicidade would exhibit that kind of exotic animals like armadillos, wild cats, and snakes.”

The first report of the case on TDM also dates back to about that period, when the bear was moved to the Flora Garden.

At that time, the police’s hands were tied. There were no legal grounds on which to apprehend the bear. There was no animal protection law and Macau was not part of any covenant against harming endangered species.

“However at some point, the police found out that the bear had entered illegally in the territory, and the animal was confiscated because it was smuggled into Macau,” Bruning said.

The bear had already been auctioned off for a banquet which never happened due to TDM and Va Kio’s reporting. BoBo escaped the grill and lived a very long life. Maybe not exactly 35 years, but close to it.  PC