A baby bear rejected by its family at a Kent zoo has found a new home elsewhere in the county just in time for Christmas.

Boki was sadly shunned by his mother at Port Lympne when just 10 weeks old but is now settling in at the Wildwood animal park in Herne, near Canterbury.

The European brown bear was born at the zoo in Lympne, near Hythe, after his parents were rescued from Spain.

But when he was less than three months old and weighed only one-and-a-half stone he was rejected, and all attempts to reunite the furry family failed.

From then on the infant was hand-raised by keepers, but it was clear a new home would need to be found for him.

The Wildwood Trust explained: “We leapt into action, building up his new woodland enclosure here to make sure we could give him a home in time for Christmas.

“Our keepers are experts in bear husbandry, and will be teaching Boki how to be a bear, helping him express all of those natural behaviours he would have learned from his family.”

The conservation charity’s next challenge is to find the cub a playmate, as living alone could be harmful to his wellbeing.

It continued: “In time, we hope to find Boki a friend to help with his development.

“But for now we know all our visitors and fellow residents will make him feel right at home as he embarks on the next stage of his journey to becoming a happy, healthy adult bear.”

The Wildwood Trust, which was also jointly responsible for the reintroduction of bison into the West Blean and Thornden Woods in July, is a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife.

Visitors to its 40 acres of ancient woodland can spot animals native to Britain including bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers.

In the new year visitors will be able to meet Boki for the first time, and some may even be able to feed the little one as the park slowly weans the cub off human interaction.

Port Lympne’s animal manager, Richard Barnes, previously told of the life Boki thankfully avoided having been rescued.

“The biggest problem with brown bears is they are in really horrendous conditions all over the world," he said.

"You have them in places in Eastern Europe where they are in a cage in the corner of a cafe and it's part of a draw to get people to come.

“There’s other places where bears are used for dancing and they’ve got rings through their noses or they are even put on hot coals. They are in really awful conditions.”

Wildwood is already home to two European brown bears called Fluff and Scruff.

They arrived at the park in November 2014 after being rescued from shocking conditions in Bulgaria, where they were bred to be hunted and lived in small concrete pits.

In 2020, Wildwood also rescued two abandoned bear cubs - Mish and Lucy - who were nursed back to full health over 10 months before being transferred to the Trust's sister park in Devon.