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GV Bears boarding a bus
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SV Bear riding motorcycle in park
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SV Tatiana Filatov training bears on bicycles
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SV Filatova pushing bears in pram
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Tsvetnoi Boulevard Circus with bears performing (11 shots)
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BEARS BOARDING A BUS: BEAR RIDING A MOTORCYCLE: TATIANA FILATOV TRAINING BEARS ON BICYCLES: FILATOV PUSHING BEARS IN PRAM: INTERIOR OF CIRCUS WITH BEARS PERFORMING.




Initials CL/1634 CL/1643



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: At the Tsvetnoi Boulevard Circus in Moscow, performing bears are one of the main attractions.

The bears are trained by Valentin Filatov and his family. They have been putting on shows with the bears since 1949 and now perform with 100 trained animals - 40 of them bears.

Filatov was the first man to put bears on motorcycles back in 1949. The bears also roller-skate, bicycle and perform acrobatics.

One of the bears - 19 year old 'Mashka' - has also appeared in films and is considered by the Filatovs to be the most gifted in the Bear Circus.

In the second half of their show, the Filatovs work with their other animals - monkeys, parrots, ponies and a boa constrictor. The animals have travelled with the family to performances in 30 countries.