ChamPa, an Asiatic black bear, has just made history. The 3-year-old is the first bear to ever undergo brain surgery (http://www.geekosystem.com/first-bear-brain-surgery/).
According to a statement released by wildlife-protection organization Free the Bears (http://www.freethebears.org.au/), ChamPa was rescued as a cub (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130411-bear-brain-surgery-laos-wildlife-trafficking/) and cared for at a bear sanctuary in Laos. However, veterinarians later discovered that she suffered from a buildup of fluid in the brain called hydrocephalus (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/detail_hydrocephalus.htm), which affects both animals and humans.
As euthanization was not an option due Laos' Buddhist tradition and wildlife protection laws, there was only one other choice -- try a surgery that has never been performed on a bear.
Free the Bears, which runs the sanctuary, decided to take the chance and enlisted a renowned veterinary surgeon for the operation. Romain Pizzi (http://www.romainpizzi.com/) performed the successful six-hour procedure on Feb. 26.
Click over to National Geographic to read the details of the surgery. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130411-bear-brain-surgery-laos-wildlife-trafficking/)
While brain surgery had never been performed on a bear until Pizzi's procedure, other forms of wildlife have received the life-saving operation. Earlier this month, a lion went under the knife (http://www.wbir.com/news/article/263299/2/Lion-undergoes-rare-brain-surgery-at-UT) at the University of Tennessee, where experts completed a rare brain surgery in order to save the animal from euthanization.
Along with ChamPa, there are 22 other Asiatic black bears at the Laos rescue center (http://www.freethebears.org.au/web/Projects/Laos/Meet-the-Bears/) near the city of Luang Prabang. The Lao government often seizes cubs at a relatively young age from illegal poaching and trading industries in the country, which seek to use the animals for their bile.
The Asiatic black bear (http://www.arkive.org/asiatic-black-bear/ursus-thibetanus/), which looks very similar to its American counterpart, Ursus americanus (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41687/0), is currently classified as a vulnerable species (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22824) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
See photos of ChamPa's surgery and recovery in the gallery below.
Via: HuffingtonPost