A young Colombian boy adopted a rare bear cub as a pet and cared for it for weeks until his parents finally called authorities.
The boy found the three-month-old female spectacled bear — a small species of bear native to South America — playing with his dog in the garden outside his rural home, local news service Antena 3 reports.
The bear was dehydrated, malnourished and confused, so the boy decided to take it home as a pet.
He fed the cub milk and honey and it lived in the family home for weeks until his parents eventually called authorities to come and pick it up.
When vets examined the animal they were surprised to find it in good health, and said it would not have survived without the boy's help.
Authorities believe the cub's mother was killed by poachers, with locals sighting a female bear with two cubs not long before the lost cub turned up.
Front page
World home
RSS Feed