Chada was born on December 24, 1998, but she never knew the mountains her family came from.
She is a Tien Shan brown bear, sometimes called a Himalayan brown bear, a rare and endangered kind of brown bear. Only a few hundred are thought to be left in the wild. Chada’s ancestors were brought from Central Asia decades ago and ended up in Soviet circuses and zoos. She was born in captivity.
While she was still very young, she was sold to Ukraine’s national circus. For about twelve years she lived on wheels, traveling from town to town and performing for crowds.
When the circus no longer needed her, she was left in a small, rusty cage in an industrial area of Bilohorodka, just outside Kyiv. She spent seven years there, among garages and concrete.
Animal activists finally noticed her. There was no free space at any bear rehabilitation center at the time, so she was moved to a private menagerie in the Zaporizhzhia region. She was fed and not mistreated there, but it was still no place for a bear. That village is now under Russian occupation.
On July 16, 2019, Chada arrived at the White Rock Bear Shelter, run by the Ukrainian charity Save Wild. The shelter was then in the Zhytomyr region. In October 2020 it moved to a new home in the Kyiv region.
The years of captivity had left their mark. Chada’s eyesight is very poor, and she is missing many of her teeth. But her keepers say she never lost her fighting spirit or her love of life, and she quickly became the star of the shelter.
For the first time she had grass under her paws, a den of her own and space to explore. She splashes in her pool, plays with a tire swing, and her favorite treats include strawberries and cheese.
Life at the shelter has not always been easy. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the bears had to be moved, and they were brought back home near Kyiv that June. The staff have kept caring for them through power cuts and rising food prices.
The video above is the shelter’s own short film about how Chada was saved, from the old cage to her first days on the grass.
She turns 28 next month, which is old for a bear. As of 2026 the shelter still lists her among its residents, alongside a bear named Synochok and three rescued wolves.
After a life spent performing, Chada’s days now look like this: sunshine, a cool pool, and as much rolling in the grass as she likes.
