Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Winter may not appear to be the ideal time to visit bears at parks, given their reputation for hibernating, but this is not stopping tourists from streaming to see the new bear park in Bern, which opened in late October 2009. Finn, a young male bear recovering after he was shot when an intruder went into the animal’s den, is particularly sought out.

“He’s in a kind of micro-hibernation,” says bear park spokesperson Marc Rosset, who says you have to have luck on your side to see Finn during these wintry days.

“He came to us from the Helsinki zoo, where he did hibernate during his first two years.” But in the slightly warmer climate of Bern, he occasionally goes outside. “He gets hungry, so he goes looking for food,” says Rosset.

Finn’s fourth birthday is 15 January.

The old bear pit was one of the city’s most popular attractions, but by today’s standards it was too cramped. It closed in 2008 and the new riverfront bear park opened in October to huge crowds.

The park stayed in the news: visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev brought two Siberian bear cubs with him in late September as a present. The cubs, Mascha and Mischa, are spending four months in quarantine at the Bern zoo, so cannot be viewed at the bear park at the moment. And then a mentally handicapped man slipped over the park barrier and was attacked by Finn, a four-year-old male, 23 November. Bern police had to shoot the bear to free the man.

Rosset told GenevaLunch that Finn has recovered well and appears to have no serious health problems  from the shooting. Veterinarians initially said his life was in danger and, later, that he might need surgery but he bounced back without an operation.

The 25-year-old man, for his part, suffered a number of injuries and was released from the hospital only in early January.

The two bears currently in the park, Finn and Bjoerk, can be seen on webcams, when they are outside or sometimes now snuggled and dozing, deep in straw in the filmed part of their dens.

The park’s website also has a photo gallery and four films that can be seen online, including this one:

Information for visitors

Tranpsort: easy public transport access (bus 12), six minutes from the main station. There is limited parking on the riverfront, accessible from the bear park side of the bridge (map).

Entrance fees and hours: free, as part of the walking path along the water’s edge, accessible at all times. Keepers are there from 08:00-17:00 and sometimes more often.

Mobile phone website