Velga Vitola and her bear

Living side by side with people bear cub. Velga Vitola and her bear

Velga Vitola and her bear. Can you imagine that a wild bear can live side by side with people in the house? Velga Vitola, 55-year-old woman found two tiny cubs abandoned in the in the thick woods of Ligatne National Park. She fed malnourished cubs with milk, but one of them was so weak that died a few days later. Velga worried about the second baby, but he soon grew stronger. Velga decided to name it Ilzit. She decided when he finally gets stronger – she will let him go free. Fortunately, Velga lives in a small hut in the Latvian forests in dozens of kilometers away from civilization, so the young bear feels almost like home.

Adorable Ilzit, the bear

“He sleeps in my bed and plays with my children – a son and daughter, who love him as much as I do! I think he considers himself a human being, because he never saw his own kind. Ilzit once saw himself in the mirror, he began to growl and even snapped at his reflection”

The locals called Velga “the mother of all animals” for her love for animals. In addition to bear, Velga has several hedgehogs and moose named Fred.