Keepers at Wildwood Trust are celebrating after a successful first meeting between one-year-old bear cub, Boki, and their adult male bears Fluff and Scruff.

The woodland discovery park in Canterbury Road, Herne Bay, announced the exciting news earlier this week as Fluff and Scruff took well to the young bear.

The heart-warming introduction comes just four months after Boki arrived at the park in search of a new family, after previous efforts to find the cub a fit failed.

Jon Forde, Wildwood’s head bear keeper, says the first introduction went as well as they’d hoped but they’re not taking anything for granted.

"We knew when we agreed to take Boki that we’d need to work hard to help him learn bear behaviours and get him to a place where he could mix with the older boys," he said.

"We’re delighted to see them interact so well in the first instance – Fluff has taken to him particularly well – but this is just the first in a series of introductions and we’re not out of the woods yet.

"We’ll continue to work closely with our counterparts at Port Lympne in the hope that one day the three bears can be fully integrated."

It’s a positive first step for Boki, who was rejected by his mother shortly after his birth at Port Lympne and had to be hand-reared by keepers.

Despite numerous attempts to reintegrate him into the Port Lympne brown bear family – rescue bears from a Spanish circus – they soon realised that it was in Boki's best interests to move to Wildwood.

Adult bears Fluff and Scruff share a tragic back story, having been rescued in Bulgaria eight years ago after suffering years of physical and mental trauma in an abandoned breeding facility.

It is hoped that carefully monitored daily introductions run by the team will help the relationship between the bears develop as Boki looks to take his first steps as part of the tribe.

Wildwood Trust, home to more than 200 native animals, has received worldwide acclaim for its rehabilitation of Fluff and Scruff, with more than six years' experience in rehabilitating and rehoming bears.