Boki the bear gets mice cake to celebrate brain surgery milestone

A wildlife park is marking one year since one of its bears underwent pioneering, life-saving brain surgery.

Boki went under the knife in October 2024 at Wildwood Trust in Kent to treat hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid on the brain that causes seizures.

The three-year-old brown bear was fitted with a stent to drain the fluid during the five-hour operation.

He was presented on Thursday with a cake – made of sweet potato, nuts, seeds and mice – to mark the anniversary.

Boki “quite likes his mice”, said Jon Forde, head of bears at Wildwood Trust.

He added that keepers had to make the cake themselves as there are “no bear bakeries around”.

Boki was the first brown bear ever to be diagnosed with hydrocephalus and undergo brain surgery, according to Mr Forde.

He called the operation a “success”, with the three-year-old now climbing trees, going swimming and playing with his bear mates, Fluff and Scruff.

In the next few days, Boki will enter torpor and sleep until spring.

“He pretty much won’t eat till March next year,” added Wildwood director general, Paul Whitfield.

Boki’s family was rescued from a Spanish circus.

He was born in captivity at Port Lympne Reserve in Kent in 2022, but had to be moved to Wildwood and hand-reared by keepers after his mother rejected him.

Boki would be unable to survive in the wild, despite keepers having taught him key bear behaviours.

“He’s had a rough first 3 years of his life but you wouldn’t know it by looking at him,” said Mr Forde.

“Everything just bounces off him. He’s just the most happy bear.”