- Hauser Bears - Lorraine Scotson - A charity specialising in care for the Welfare of Bears Worldwide

February finds me up in Bokeo, northern Lao and, with all provincial permissions quickly and smoothly in place, excitement is building in me that I am finally going to return to the forest.
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Disaster has struck. On the way to our field site this morning we were stopped by a hand-written note from the Military General of Saynaboli Province.
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After a bit more trouble than I’d hoped our field permissions finally came through today and we can leave for the first survey site immediately!
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A new year and a new field season lies ahead. I’ll be working in the northern highlands for the next 6 months, first in Nam Phui National Protected Area (NPA) and then the Nam Kan NPA.

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It’s been a long 8 months since I left the low lands of Xe Pian. Hours and hours behind the computer, report writing, fund raising, updates, budgets, datasheets…All that summed up and then it’s preparation for the next round.
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While waiting for Ped to recover from Malaria I took a trip to Chengdu, China to attend the annual Asia for Animals Conference, hosted this year by Animals Asia Foundation (AAF). This was my first chance to visit the amazing AAF sanctuary as well as to meet the equally amazing Jill Robinson. It was a great trip although my thoughts stayed with Xe Pian and the desire to return and get back to work.

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In early May I was standing outside the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Office in Vientiane, chatting with Dr Chanthavy, the Lao representative for the IUCN BSG, about how we can tackle the ongoing issues with obtaining my field permissions; the source of many sleepless nights for me.

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I had a very welcome visit from Gabriella Fredriksson and her partner Graham in early April. Gaby is the co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group (BSG) Sun bear Expert Team.

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I am delighted after just returning from my first trip to the forest here in Xe Pian. Despite the hold up with my permission documents in Vientiane, I was able to join another field team who are ground-truthing some forest cover maps for the Protected Area.

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After enduring three long distance bus journeys in one week - each the wrong side of 12 hours - I eventually caved in and hired a vehicle to transport a heap of field equipment, a motorcycle, me - and my dog, down to the new field base at Ban Lak See Sip (quite literally ‘Village Km 40’).

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At the age of 23, I was fortunate to be accepted as a volunteer for the Free the Bears (FTB) Sanctuary in Cambodia. Matt Hunt (FTB) met me at the airport on January 2nd 2007 and told me “You’re going to like bears Lorraine, they’re just as intelligent as gorillas and have a great sense of humour!”. I would have to admit that at that point I had absolutely no idea about bears. In reality it just made everything so much more exciting, eight species of bear in the world and six of them occur in Asia? – How cool!!

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