Jimmy's Farm hopes Suffolk will be home for Diego next year

Diego is the last bear at the Orsa Rovdjurspark (Orsa Predator Park) zoo in Sweden, which has closed to make way for a leisure facility.

The staff at the park were ordered to remove all the animals or they would be put to sleep.

While Jimmy's Farm, in Wherstead near Ipswich, does not currently have the facility to house Diego, they are fundraising to build him a large reserve and give him the best chance of survival.

Diego the brown bear (Image: Jimmy's Farm)

The GoFundMe page has already raised almost £46,000 in the last week and a half, but still has some way to go to reach its £70,000 target.

Jimmy Doherty, CEO of Jimmy's Farm, said: "We have raised half of the money we need and have joined forces with Wildwood in Devon, who already have brown bears and have a facility they can house him over the winter.

One of the twelve Arctic Wolves at Jimmy's Farm (Image: Belle PR / Jimmy's Farm)

“He is about to go into his torper, his semi-hibernation, and we haven’t got the facility quite yet and he’s got to go in two weeks or else he is put to sleep.

“Our colleagues at Wildwood said they would take him over the winter, so we can go on creating his habitat.

“I remember writing in my last book and saying I would never really want to have big animals in the wildlife park like tigers or polar bears, but when you read a situation, you know some things you just have to help with."

Ewa the polar bear at Jimmy's Farm (Image: Belle PR / Jimmy's Farm)

The farm has also rescued Ewa the polar bear, pronounced Eva in Swedish, from the zoo, and she arrived at the farm this month, after a year of work and a trip on the Eurotunnel.

The new polar bear reserve, The Lost Lands of the Tundra, will open to the public at Jimmy's Farm and Wildlife Park on Saturday (October 21).

To donate to help save Diego, visit the GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/f/the-last-bear-diego