This shocking footage shows a bear that was caged for 20 years still unable to stop circling despite being released into a huge woodland nature reserve.

The bear named Ina was kept in a tiny cage at a zoo in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamț for 20 years before finally being rescued and relocated to a reserve in Zarnesti thanks the actions of the AMP Libearty bear sanctuary.

She has been free since 2014, yet according to her carers she still cannot properly comprehend a life without bars and continues to pace as if the imaginary cage was still around her.

The bear sanctuary said that in the zoo, Ina had to share space with another female bear, Anca, and that the cage was so small there was only room for one of them to exercise at a time. There was also a small pool of water that they had to share.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “She is free, but her mind is captive even now, and there are days when she turns endlessly in a circle penned in by an imaginary cage created by her traumatic life.”

They said they shared the video to show that such trauma caused by 20 years in a tiny cage can never be forgotten and the animal still bears the mental scars.

The spokesman added: “We did not expect the footage to go viral, especially given that Ina is now in our care and being looked after, but we want people to remember that bears are not soulless beasts and they suffer as we do from cruelty.”