Developing a Reliable Welfare Assessment Tool for Captive Hibernatory Bear Species
Animal welfare assessments are essential for the identification of welfare hazards and benchmarking of welfare improvements, though welfare assessments for zoo species are lacking. Bears are commonly housed in zoos but currently no composite welfare assessment tool exists for captive bears. This study describes the development of such a tool for use across hibernating bear […]
Comparative endocrine investigations in three bear species based on urinary steroid metabolites and volatiles
In order to improve breeding of in situ populations of bears, a comprehensive study of reproductive physiology in Brown (Ursus arctos), Spectacled (Tremarctos ornatus) and Giant panda bears (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) was performed. The objective was to perform non-invasive analyses of urinary and fecal steroid metabolites. In addition, we investigated the presence of reproduction-related urinary volatile […]
Implementation and comparison of home range estimators for grizzly bears in Alberta, Canada, based on GPS data
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Bears ‘Count’ Too: Quantity Estimation and Comparison in Black Bears, Ursus americanus
Studies of bear cognition are notably missing from the comparative record despite bears’ large relative brain size and interesting status as generalist carnivores facing complex foraging challenges, but lacking complex social structures. We investigated the numerical abilities of three American black bears, Ursus Americanus, by presenting discrimination tasks on a touch-screen computer. One bear chose […]