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Bear Center Enclosure a Success
August 14, 2010 – 4:34 PM CDT
Lucky eating round leaf dogwood - August 13, 2010Sometime last evening Lily and Hope were separated again. We see this often with mothers and cubs in late summer. All cubs are getting pretty independent—and, with all Hope has been through this year, she tops the chart in independence. While Lily rested this morning, Hope foraged off on her own. People spotted Hope crossing a forest road a couple hundred yards away. Hope retreated up a tree until she saw an opportunity to run back in Lily’s direction. We’re liking more and more what we see in Hope. We joined up with both Lily and Hope today. Lily appeared to be trailing something—likely Hope. But when we joined Hope, she seemed confident and unstressed about this separation. Stay tuned!
Another thing we like is the bear enclosure at the North American Bear Center. With advice from Rob Laidlaw of Zoocheck Canada, and others, we built the kind of bear enclosure we believed should be the standard around the world. It’s wild and beautiful—a waterfall and pond set in a diverse, dense forest of over 2 acres.
Bears in captivity should have an environment that doesn’t drive them crazy with captive psychosis.
What we see in the enclosure at the North American Bear Center are behaviors much like we see in the wild. What makes that more amazing is that these bears had no experience in the wild. Yet, they didn’t have to learn to eat wild foods. They instinctively knew to raid ant colonies and forage on the same foods wild bears eat. The photo shows 3-year-old Lucky eating round-leafed dogwood berries—the same berries wild bears are eating now. None of the bears in the Bear Center enclosure pace.
The enclosure is home to 3 bears. Lucky was an orphaned cub that was about to be killed at a rehabilitation center. Ted and Honey, now 13 and 14 years old, were born and raised in captivity. All came to the Bear Center in 2007. Lucky and Ted became buddies, playing together, sometimes feeding nose to nose, and they even hibernated together last winter. Honey is more a loner even though she was raised with Ted, but she and Lucky spent one winter snuggled in her den.
What a contrast between the Bear Center’s enclosure and the small cement structures that house bears elsewhere around the world. Bears are intelligent, active animals that search for food and explore their world. In cement enclosures, bears with active minds descend into boredom, pace, and make repetitive, mindless movements. Given no choice but to sit and walk on cement, the abrasive contact causes hair loss and raw feet and tails. Zookeepers may try to interrupt the repetitive behaviors and boredom by introducing novel objects to encourage play and exploration. But there is only so much anyone can do.
It would be hard to imagine a more natural bear enclosure than the forested one at the Bear Center. Mother nature provides better enrichment than any human ever could. Each year, the changing seasons produce ever-changing bear foods. In addition, keepers plant grass and clover so the bears have an abundance of fresh young greens. The dense forest lets the bears rest unseen in the shade, forage for wild foods, climb trees, and play with wild objects. Or they can make themselves visible to swim in the pond and forage for nuts, fruit, and greens that keepers scatter many times a day. Lucky and Ted put on great shows romping and playing with each other in and around the pond.
The natural enclosure allows each bear to express his or her distinct personality. Lucky is more the explorer. He always has somewhere to go or a log to manipulate. Ted was raised by his former owners to like people, and he spends more time in front of the observation deck people-watching and being watched. Honey is more reclusive. At first, she paced in an area the size of the small pen she was raised in. Now she’s expanded her world to the forest and its wild occupants.
There is too much for the bears to do and see for them to waste time pacing or doing repetitive behaviors, as pond cam viewers can attest.
They share the enclosure with wild red squirrels, eastern chipmunks, Franklin’s ground squirrels, snowshoe hares, woodchucks, pine martens, mice, ducks, gulls, ravens, and other wild critters that come and go.
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memory challenged photographer owned by cats
Pat
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Seems to me that they could make that area off-limits for hunting.
San Diego Zoo 
