This extraordinary picture shows a rescued brown bear and his new owner fishing together on a boat in Russia.
Archie, the brown bear, and Veronika Dichka like to spend time fishing on the lake in their native Novosibirsk, in southern Siberia. After years cooped up in a safari park - bears are highly intelligent, wide-ranging animals and can therefore suffer particularly badly in captivity - Veronika rescued Archie when the park went out of business two years ago and has since kept him as a pet. She says they are now firm friends and Archie is relishing his new life, and enjoying his relative freedom.
“We rescued him from the safari park but can’t release him into the wild as he has lived in captivity his whole life,” Veronika said. The pair are like any other friends enjoying each other’s company and spend lots of quality time on the water, reports Epoch Times.
With fishing rod in hand, Veronika waits for any bites whilst Archie manages to resist the urge of jumping into the water and hunting his own food.
Since it's not listed in the Red Book of endangered species, a brown bear is the only wild animal that can be bought and kept on Russian territory without a special permit.
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