Brown Bear Cognition and Welfare
The welfare of large-brained wide-roaming carnivores in captivity has been of longstanding public and professional concern. Bears are one such example. Ursids have unexpectedly large relative brain sizes, indeed showing brain size increases similar to those observed in canids. Bears also have considerable space requirements, with extensive home range sizes seen in the wild. Species […]
Seasonal and Daily Activity of Two Zoo-Housed Grizzly Bears (Ursus Arctos Horribilis)
Captive grizzly bears, like their wild counterparts, engage in considerable variability in their seasonal and daily activity. We documented the year-long activity of two grizzly bears located at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington. We found that behaviors emerged in relation to month-to-month, seasonal, and time of day (hour-to-hour) observations, and events that occurred […]
Environmental and social influences on enclosure use and activity patterns of captive sloth bears (Ursus ursinus)
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.1430110607.abs Four adult sloth bears (Ursus ursinus) at the Los Angeles Zoo were studied for 13 months to quantify the influence of environmental and social variables on enclosure use and activity. Observations were conducted in 1-hr samples, using 1-min scans, for a total of 150 hr distributed across two seasons and three time periods. […]
The Influence of Visitors on Behaviour and on the Use of Space in Two Species of Ursids: a Management Question?
No abstract available.
Implementing unpredictability in feeding enrichment for Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus)
Bears in the wild spend large proportions of time in foraging activities. In zoos their time budgets differ markedly from those of their wild counterparts. Feeding enrichment has been documented to increase foraging behavior and to reduce stereotypies. But in general these procedures have no long-term effects and result in habituation. As can be expected […]