Ryan Marcel Sucaet, BSc

Bear and Vet Team Director, China

Ryan heads up the Bear & Veterinary Team at the China Bear Rescue Centre (CBRC) and our facility in Nanning, ensuring high-standard care is given to all of the centres’ residents, including Asiatic black bears, Tibetan brown bears, Tibetan macaques, and various cats and dogs. Prior to this role, Ryan worked as a Bear Manager for over three years at CBRC where he helped with daily bear husbandry/training, staff and bear management, as well as volunteer coordination, helping to cover both CBRC and Nanning.

Ryan was raised in Warren, Michigan (USA) but had an innate passion to help wildlife in any small way and have the opportunity to live abroad. While studying for his BSc in Zoology from Michigan State University, he started to follow his life’s aspiration. A study abroad program in Uganda led to an internship in Namibia, which later ended up being the beginning of a four-year passion where he worked as a cheetah keeper and researcher, his main duty consisting of re-wilding captive cheetahs. It was in Namibia he worked alongside a vet nurse who educated him on the unbelievable work of Animals Asia and so in 2014 when he saw a job opening for Bear Manager, he knew he had found his new home.

Ryan has lived at the bear sanctuary in Longqiao, China along with the world’s greatest colleagues, since May 2015.