The rescued bears from the FOUR PAWS Bear Sanctuary Müritz in Germany enjoyed BEAR-y Tartare made by Priyanka Naik
BARENWALD Muritz/FOUR PAWS
Pavle the bear enjoys the Beary Tartare at a FOUR PAWS shelter
Being sleepy pays off!
In July 2024, the rescue bears will be staying in FOUR PAWS The Müritz Bear Sanctuary in Germany was treated to a feast created by award-winning chef Food Network champion Priyanka Naik.
The brown bears were treated to a sumptuous yet healthy meal to celebrate their participation in March Napness — The tournament-style bracket competition of FOUR PAWS held to see which of the bears the organization rescues across six sanctuaries hibernate the longest.
A good night’s sleep is always a reason to celebrate, but that certainly applies to FOUR PAWS’ rescue bears. These animals were rescued from captivity, where they were kept in neglectful conditions that prevented them from performing their natural hibernation behavior.
BARENWALD Muritz/FOUR PAWS
Chef Priyanka Naik
“To be able to provide them with the conditions to show this behavior and to see them follow their natural instincts, despite never having been ‘taught’ how, is what I celebrate with March Napness,” Svenja Voss, a coordinator of sustainable tourism development at FOUR PAWS sanctuaries, shared in a statement. “That is the greatest gift these rescue bears can give us. It shows that what we do works.”
The bears at FOUR PAWS Bear Sanctuary Müritz enjoyed their winter hibernation and a custom-made meal prepared by Naik. To create the festive dish, the plant-based chef consulted with the bears’ caretakers about the animals’ personal preferences and what constitutes a healthy diet for brown bears.
Related: After 17 years in small cages, 9 bears move to ‘species-appropriate’ sanctuary in Vietnam
“I asked the FOUR PAWS team what the bears usually eat, and they were able to share their preferences! They said that each of the 11 rescued bears at the Barenwald Müritz Sanctuary has their own favorites, including melons, nuts, root vegetables, honey, and almond butter, to name a few. So I wanted to create something colorful and fun to eat that incorporated their favorite flavors,” Naik tells PEOPLE.
BARENWALD Muritz/FOUR PAWS
Beer Dasha eats Beary Tartare
With this in mind, she came up with a recipe suitable for bears: the BEAR-y Tartare.
“I wanted to recreate this dish (which normally uses raw beef and egg yolk) but with fruits and vegetables! I recreated the steak with cooked beets and watermelon, mandarin oranges, honey dressing for egg yolk, cantaloupe for a hard-boiled egg, and garnished it with walnuts and raisins for that extra crunch. To hold the tartare together on the wooden serving platter for the bears, I used almond butter as a glue,” says the self-taught chef.
With the recipe in place, Naik made the tartare in the sanctuary’s designated bear kitchen. Although this was Naik’s “absolute first” time cooking for bears, she made sure to take the needs of her furry clients into account.
Related: Bear kept in small indoor cage sees outside for first time in 20 years during rescue
“We always wore gloves and the portions were big. The vegetables and fruits were cut into large pieces instead of smaller pieces. I did this to make it easier for the bears to eat. We also served each bear’s tartare on large individual wooden boards,” says Naik.
BARENWALD Muritz/FOUR PAWS
Priyanka Naik prepares Beary Tartare for the bears at the FOUR PAWS Müritz Bear Sanctuary in Germany
It was a reward for the chef to see the bears feasting on the food. He enjoyed watching the animals approach the dish.
“It was so cute to watch them quickly saunter over to her, using their detective-like noses to sniff it out. I saw the male bears lick a few times and then take a few big bites and swallow it almost whole, while the female bears would lick the bear-like fruit tartare carefully and really seemed to enjoy it,” Naik says of the reactions to her BEAR-like tartare.
All in all, “the experience of meeting the rescued bears was incredibly fulfilling and confirmed how much these bears deserved this special meal,” she adds.
BARENWALD Muritz/FOUR PAWS
Bears Dasha and Lelya enjoy Beary Tartare made by chef Priyanka Naik
Naik is convinced that the bears at the sanctuary found it worth getting up for her meal, and she hopes that animal lovers will see how much these animals deserve it.
“Everyone on this planet deserves the right to live freely, eat what they want and do what they were meant to do,” Naik said.
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“I hope others can see how much good there is in this world just by looking at how much people do for these beautiful animals. And even though these bears have suffered at the hands of humans in the past, they still trust people so much, and you can see the emotion in their beautiful eyes,” she adds.
Visit Website of FOUR PAWS to learn more about the organization’s work to help captive bears and other wild animals.
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