Almost every day something in bearland – whether in China or Vietnam – makes us laugh. These bears of ours are the most charismatic and unpredictable creatures on the planet – showing us time and time again how much we really have to learn about their unique characters and never-ending sense of fun.

As several of the bears at the rescue centre in Chengdu slept peacefully outdoors, in lovely big nests in the House 2 enclosure, I heard that Bear Manager Sally had been tracking events over the past couple of weeks and had one culprit to blame for these residents not coming in at night as they should!

Welcome Jasper, once again, to our naughty hall of fame.

Jasper has decided that it would be interesting to give our poor bear team a new problem to solve, by systematically digging cosy nests across the enclosure where his friends can snooze to their hearts' content 24/7 – and not return to the dens at night. This of course means that our long-suffering team are unable to clean and enrich the outside enclosures, and can only look on as little mounds of snoozy black bears enjoy breaking the protocols.

Here in the first three pictures taken by Sally, is Poppy (left) looking bleary eyed at the camera before yawning and settling down again all nice and warm with best friend Sausage. 

The next pic sees Roberta briefly emerging for a stretch from her nest behind the tree, while Pooh Bear quietly snores in her chosen nest between the two trees at the back of the enclosure.

Apparently Frank, Smart and Mimi have all been making use of the nests too. And here he is – the Jasper himself – looking smugly towards us, apparently satisfied with the disruption his handiwork has caused!