Mascha (brown bear)
Mascha ( Russian Маша ; * 1988 in a forest near Ustyuschna ) is the name of a female European brown bear who lives in the Yaroslavl State Museum Reserve on the site of the former Savior-Transfiguration Monastery . She is the mascot of the city of Yaroslavl , which bears the bear in its coat of arms and embodies it.
Masha was born in 1988 in a forest near Ustyuzhna in Vologda Oblast . Poachers had killed the sleeping mother when she and her brother were a year old. She was discovered by a forester from the village of Barulina , but her brother was only found dead. The forester took her to his village and trained his dogs with her. A businessman from Pereslavl-Zalessky eventually bought the bear. From then on she was kept in a cage in a city park. Since the enclosure was slowly becoming too small for the animal, the owner took them to Yaroslavl after two years. He tried to sell them to a circus there. Since this was unsuccessful, he could only give Mascha to the Yaroslavl Museum Reserve. A building with a cave for hibernation was built for them on the site of the former monastery. Her first keeper died in 1994, from 1995 German Alexandrowitsch Malyschew, a curator of the bear, took care of her as a keeper until 2006. His successor is Natalja Sobolewa. In 2003, donations made it possible to purchase a bathtub and toys such as car tires .
On August 23, 2005, Mascha attacked a 69-year-old woman who was looking after the she-bear. However, the woman disregarded safety instructions and was bitten in the foot by Mascha.
Mascha is two meters tall, weighs between 200 and 230 kg and needs about 30 kg of feed per day. Their menu includes vegetables, fruit, bread, honey, fish and soup. She also likes to eat sweets. A ticket to the enclosure costs about 15 rubles .