At the Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Center on the outskirts of Bengaluru in southern India, a sloth bear with a penchant for peanut butter and honey recently made history. Vasikaran first arrived at the facility in 2019 with an injured paw that had to be amputated — but now, he’s the first known sloth bear in the world to wear a prosthetic paw, allowing him to walk comfortably on all four legs.
That achievement is thanks in large part to Derrick Campana, a pioneer in veterinary orthotics and prosthetics. Campana’s company, Bionic Pets, has fitted more than 25,000 animals, including camels, raccoons, and elephants, with custom-made devices to help them move freely. Earlier this year, he took on the challenge of creating one for a wild bear for the first time.
But he was only able to do so because Vasikaran, nicknamed Vasi, had already received ample care after his injury. When nonprofit Wildlife SOS initially brought Vasi to the rescue center at around 10 years old, he was suffering from severe wounds and an infection caused by a poacher’s wire snare trap, resulting in the amputation of his left hind paw. Although he healed after a few months, he was forced to distribute his weight on three legs and deemed unfit for release back into the wild. So instead, Vasi took up permanent residence at the center, where he became a caretaker favorite.
“The name Vasikaran means beauty — beautiful bear,” the nonprofit’s director of research and veterinary operations, Arun A. Sha, said in an episode of The Wizard of Paws, a docuseries chronicling Campana’s work with animals. “So I immediately thought of giving that name to him.”
Before Campana created the prosthetic, caregivers helped Vasi get used to the feeling of a foreign object attached to his leg by wrapping his paw in soft cloth. “That’s my biggest thing, going into this, is will he accept a prosthesis, or he’s going to just tear at it, take it off constantly,” Campana said. “So that’s a big challenge for me.”
After examining the bear’s injured leg to visualize the prosthetic he’d need to make, Campana crafted a mold and spent several days building the device. The final product incorporates plaster to help it easily slide on and off, as well as crampons: devices often used for ice climbing that Campana deployed to mimic the animal’s claws.
And thankfully, Vasi embraced the prosthetic, balancing his weight evenly on all four legs and moving adeptly around his enclosure. “It’s not limiting him at all,” Campana said, adding, “This is huge for Vasi. It’s going to extend his life. It’s going to make him a lot more comfortable. It’s going to allow his body to stay healthy for a longer period of time, so the sky’s the limit for Vasi.”
Now, the device is occasionally removed and then reattached to prevent irritation — and it’s given the bear newfound confidence. As for Sha and the caretakers at the center, they’re overjoyed at the difference the prosthetic has made. “We believe each and every animal matters and that every life matters,” Sha said. “Whether it is a smaller-sized life or a bigger-sized life, we should learn to coexist with these animals. We need to give that respect to each and every life.”
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