Two Bears. Two Wars. One Impossible Rescue.

For years, Tyapa lived in a steel cage two and a half meters wide, too low for a grown brown bear to stand up straight. Bu, a former circus bear, spent years in a small indoor cage. This is the true story of how the two forgotten bears in Dagestan, Russia, made it all the way to a forest in County Donegal, Ireland.

It took five years. A war closed the road, a second conflict closed the skies, and more than 100 people across Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Ireland worked to bring Bu and Tyapa to Wild Ireland, the sanctuary founded by Killian McLaughlin, the “Bearman of Buncrana.”

In this film

• How Bu and Tyapa ended up at a dog and cat sanctuary in Dagestan
• Why a solicitor from Donegal hired a lawyer in Moscow to rescue two bears legally under sanctions
• Tiger House near St Petersburg, and the 36-hour drives to cut the bears out of their rusting cages
• The long way round: Moscow to Abu Dhabi to Dublin
• Why the hardest part of the journey is learning not to be afraid of the forest

Help Bu and Tyapa

Visit them at Wild Ireland in Burnfoot, County Donegal, or support their care. Moondance Productions’ full documentary of the rescue is expected in 2027.

Rescue footage and stills courtesy of Moondance Productions. Narration: AI voice. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0.