If you’ve been on Instagram recently, you may have seen an adorable bear passionately splashing water to entertain herself. Her name is Chada, and she’s a female Tien Shan bear, also known as a Himalayan brown bear. This is an endangered subspecies of brown bear, with only around 300 believed to remain in the wild. Chada was born in captivity on December 24, 1998. This December, she will turn 28 years old.
Her parents were captured in Central Asia and then brought to the Soviet Union, where bears were distributed to state circuses and zoos, often forced to endure abuse and perform. The Ukrainian National Circus exploited her from the time she was a cub, and she spent much of her life traveling. After the National Circus decided she wasn’t useful anymore, her trainer sold her to a private owner who used her in traveling shows.
She was ultimately abandoned in a tiny, rusty cage in an industrial area on the outskirts of Kyiv. Tragically, she was kept in that cage for seven years. No natural enclosure or freedom to roam; just garages and a depressing environment.
Fortunately, animal welfare activists learned of Chada’s whereabouts and contacted the White Rock Bear Shelter, which would eventually become her home. Since the shelter was at capacity, she was moved to a private menagerie in 2017. She wasn’t abused there, but the conditions were still not right for Chada.
In the summer of 2019, she finally arrived at White Rock Bear Shelter. Tragically, by this point, years in captivity and neglect had left her with very poor eyesight and so many dental problems that she had almost no teeth left. Even so, she has finally found peace and is safe from harm.
Why Does Instagram Call Her the “Splashing Bear”?
After she arrived at White Rock, she had access to so many new things – grass, space to explore, enrichment activities, and, best of all, her own pool! Footage of her enthusiastically playing in the water and splashing has become a symbol of her new freedom. Water play has become a major part of her daily routine, while she also enjoys activities like using a tire swing, scratching herself with a stick, and happily eating her favorite foods, such as strawberries and cheese.
The footage doesn’t just bring people joy – once they learn her story and how she was confined to small cages for much of her life, it becomes an inspiring reminder that it’s never too late to start over.
Chada’s “Sleepy Bear” Moment That Went Viral
In 2023, she became a social media star after a video of her sleepily crawling out of her den with matted fur went viral. While some assumed she was coming out of hibernation, the shelter confirmed she had just been sleeping and looked that way because she was shedding her thick winter coat. She became something of a meme, attracting millions of views, with people comparing her tired look to how they feel waking up on a Monday. Her light-colored fur also raised questions, with some people thinking she was a polar bear rather than a rare type of brown bear.
Surviving the War in Ukraine
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, fighter jets flew over the area where White Rock was located, and Russian forces were seen nearby. Brave staff members and volunteers took on the task of evacuating the shelter’s bears in 2022. They had to sedate the bears with limited medical supplies, deal with fuel shortages and overcrowded roads, and endure a journey that lasted more than 24 hours. Since then, the shelter has developed emergency plans for attacks and installed backup power systems.
Where Is Chada Now?
Despite having very poor eyesight and almost no teeth, she is happily spending her remaining years in a separate enclosure due to her needs, age, and size. However, she can still socialize with neighboring bears. The shelter describes Chada as a fighter with a “thirst for life.”