The Basket Case Bears

Virtually none of the lions that you see in an American zoo have ever seen Africa; ditto for tigers and Asia, or jaguars and South America.  The same could be said for almost all of the other large carnivores.  The sloth bears, sun bears, Andean bears, and polar bears in our zoos all most likely started their lives in zoos.  There are a few exceptions, though – and the exceptions that prove the rule are the brown bears and (especially) American black bears.  If you see one of those bears, especially in an AZA-accredited zoo, then it’s most likely that their story leads back to the wild.  

These are the bears that likely got themselves into trouble somehow.  Maybe they were pulling the Yogi Bear routine and helping themselves to one too many picnic baskets (or breaking into too many cars, bird feeders, etc) and efforts to relocate or reeducate them just weren’t working.  Maybe they were found as orphans and were rescued at an age where they were just too young to be released.  Or, maybe it was their mother who was the problem bear and they learned their bad habits from her (not that the father bears can’t also be troublemakers – it’s just that, since they take no part in rearing the cubs, they aren’t in a position to pass along any bad habits).  Either way, a situation will arise where, for these bears, there are two options left.  There’s life in a zoo… or death.

Bears are smart, adaptable creatures, and given the right environment and the right care, even an adult wild-born bear can settle in pretty comfortably to life in a zoo setting.  They can still forage, climb, swim, dig, and do most of the other bear activities.  I’d say “most” because there is one thing that these bears should not be doing – and that’s breeding.  There is a pretty steady supply of bears every year that need to be re-homed, and only so many spaces in facilities that are equipped to care for them.  The solution, then, is to not create any more brown bears or American black bears that could take space and resources away from potential future rescues (it's the same reason zoo's don't usually breed other native animals, such as bald eagles and pumas).  For those bears, having a space available in a zoo or sanctuary could very well be the difference between life and death.

I’ve worked with some of these “basket case bears” and met others up close and personal, and I’ve loved them all.  They work well in zoo exhibits of native wildlife, and, through their personal stories, can be great messengers about how to successfully live alongside large wild animals like bears.  At Zoo Naples and Turtle Back Zoo, for example, the exhibits are modeled around people’s homes, and it’s like you’re looking out into your yard and seeing bears there.  Visitors can learn about how to coexist with bears in a way that’s safe for everyone.  That’s a wonderful teaching opportunity for people.

The only challenge is when it comes to the other bears – the endangered bears that aren’t from the United States.  Sloth bears and Andean bears are endangered species, and ideally zoo-based breeding programs would help maintain a sustainable population of the species for the future.  The limiting factor, however, is space – bears are big animals that need a lot of resources, and there just aren’t that many spaces available in zoos.  The “foreign” bears tend to lose out to the local guys.  It’s a tough decision – do you devote your resources to helping to support an endangered species that’s in need of conservation?  Or do you give it to a common species with a good educational message, and whereby in doing so you might be saving the life of an individual animal?

Ideally, we’d have the space and resources to do both, but conservation has never been a field that’s been overloaded with resources… and that leads to some tough questions and delicate balancing acts.