The fate of Sun Bears in the US

John Marchwick

John Marchwick

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
The ever decreasing zoo population of Sun Bears in the US is making it harder and harder for zoo goers to see this endangered animal. I wonder what will become of sun bears in US zoos. I want to hear everyone’s opinion on this as I want this thread to have and express your opinion about this topic. Do u think zoos should phase out sun bears? Do u think zoos shouldn’t phase out sun bears? Tell me and other zoochaters what u think about this topic.
 
As someone who’s home zoo has the youngest sun bears in the nation, it’s a lost cause.

Breeding has been unsuccessful with only San Diego managing to produce a cub or two. Until more research is done on the breeding habits in captivity, sun bears are going to end up disappearing from the AZA facilities in a few decades (maybe even a decade).

Although this topic has been discussed before in other threads (ones I can’t link to know since I’m using a phone on the road) the fact of the matter is that zoos cannot keep a population of sun bears in the US. As much as I want to see sun bears in zoos over in America, it’s almost certain that it is not the case. I’d rather see zoos put more work into sloth and Andean bears, two bear species that are breeding in the US and need to have more attention directed to them so the method of breeding them is perfected if not, as successful as other large carnivores. So I would say sun bears are a lost cause as of right now and zoos need to focus on bear species that have been breeding (albeit in a small amount) in captivity in the US.
 
It's hard to say. I don't have a personal opinion on the matter but, based on the facts, the future of the North American sun bear population is looking bleak. If breeding doesn't improve or new genetics are not brought in to increase the population, accredited zoos will have no other choice but to phase out sun bears. The truth of the matter is the sun bear population in North America is steadily declining and the reproduction of the species has been unsuccessful. Ultimately, within the next decade, AZA must decide whether sun bears should remain in accredited facilities or turning their attention to more successful breeding programs would be beneficial to other bear species, such as polar bears, sloth bears, and spectacled bears.

Questions regarding the current statics of the North American sun bear population:
• How many sun bears currently reside in the United States?
• Which accredited zoos currently house sun bears?
• Why have zoos been unsuccessful in the reproduction of sun bears?
• Which zoos have recently produced sun bear cubs (in the past decade)?
 
The issue isn't so much the lake of breeding knowledge as it is the animals themselves. The US decided to focus on the Bornean subspecies on the later 90s/early 2000s if memory serves and we imported a population of all rescued, ex-pet bears. Rescued/confiscated Sun Bears seem to be prone to reproductive issues, probably related the diet they received as cubs. This is a problem the UK nominate population seems to be facing for the most part as well.

I love Sun Bears, they're probably my favorite bear species (and the one I've seen the least) but there is no future for them in the AZA unless zoos want to commit to a brand new importation of bears from native range- which will likely never happen.

Bears in general are in a tough spot in the US. Asiatic Black Bears are a phase-out with very few individuals left, Polar Bears are in an extremely tough spot and I have my doubts that a long-term breeding population can be established at this point, and I genuinely doubt the future of Giant Pandas in US zoos. The Andean Bear population seems to have had some solid breeding success lateky, loth Bears have an optimistic future as well despite the AZA decision to cross the Sri Lankan subspecies with Indian animals from Europe, and Brown Bears and American Black Bears will always be around due to wild rescues. It won't be too long now before all the bear species can no longer be seen in the US.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The issue isn't so much the lake of breeding knowledge as it is the animals themselves. The US decided to focus on the Bornean subspecies on the later 90s/early 2000s if memory serves and we imported a population of all rescued, ex-pet bears. Rescued/confiscated Sun Bears seem to be prone to reproductive issues, probably related the diet they received as cubs. This is a problem the UK nominate population seems to be facing for the most part as well.

I love Sun Bears, they're probably my favorite bear species (and the one I've seen the least) but there is no future for them in the AZA unless zoos want to commit to a brand new importation of bears from native range- which will likely never happen.

Bears in general are in a tough spot in the US. Asiatic Black Bears are a phase-out with very few individuals left, Polar Bears are in an extremely tough spot and I have my doubts that a long-term breeding population can be established at this point, and I genuinely doubt the future of Giant Pandas in US zoos. The Andean Bear population seems to have had some solid breeding success lateky, loth Bears have an optimistic future as well despite the AZA decision to cross the Sri Lankan subspecies with Indian animals from Europe, and Brown Bears and American Black Bears will always be around due to wild rescues. It won't be too long now before all the bear species can no longer be seen in the US.

~Thylo
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I wouldn’t say all bear species will no longer be seen in the US in the future. American Black and Grizzly Bears will still be in zoos in the US cause zoos are rescuing them all the time from the wild. Polar Bears will still be seen in the US I think cause I know some zoos like San Diego rescued their polar bears. I personally think Andean bears have a chance also.
 
John Marchwick said:
I wouldn’t say all bear species will no longer be seen in the US in the future. American Black and Grizzly Bears will still be in zoos in the US cause zoos are rescuing them all the time from the wild. Polar Bears will still be seen in the US I think cause I know some zoos like San Diego rescued their polar bears. I personally think Andean bears have a chance also.
Click to expand...

I think @ThylacineAlive meant is at that not ALL bear species will be held in N-America in the near future anymore.
 
Elephant Enthusiast said:
Ultimately, within the next decade, AZA must decide whether sun bears should remain in accredited facilities or turning their attention to more successful breeding programs would be beneficial to other bear species, such as polar bears, sloth bears, and spectacled bears.
Click to expand...

They have already made this decision. The TAG is working to convert sun bear spaces to Andean or sloth bear spaces once sun bears pass. In the meantime, reproduction is not being discouraged but breeding recommendations are not being made and success is still considered increasingly unlikely.

The sun bear population within AZA stood at ~35-40 a few years ago, but it's almost certainly declined dramatically since then because most of those bears were near or at the end of their lifespan.

I have posted on this subject before, including in this thread which should be useful @John Marchwick: Status of Exotic Bears in U.S. Zoos
 
lintworm said:
I think @ThylacineAlive meant is at that not ALL bear species will be held in N-America in the near future anymore.
Click to expand...

This is indeed what I meant.

@John Marchwick Polar Bears I don't think will be around long-term aside from the occasional rescue simply because it is no longer legal to import animals from other countries, which is why there's a very sudden push to get our remaining- and aging- bears into breeding situations. I doubt that our current population is sustainable enough, though, unfortunately.

birdsandbats said:
Either way, I personally believe that the first bear species to go will be the Asiatic Black Bear.
Click to expand...

An understandable assumption and you may be correct but I think Sun Bears are more likely to die out first. This is simply due to the fact that Asiatic Black Bears are still present in non-AZA institutions (though I don't know if anywhere is breeding them) whereas Sun Bears are not.

~Thylo
 
Another ZooChatter and I had a meeting with a zoo director a while back while eating lunch at his zoo. One of the topics that came up was the state of sun bears. This zoo director said the problem is the AZA decided to focus on only one subspecies (as @ThylacineAlive stated) and they would not let all the generic bears breed. He felt if they had let all the bears in the USA breed then we would not be in this state now.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Another ZooChatter and I had a meeting with a zoo director a while back while eating lunch at his zoo. One of the topics that came up was the state of sun bears. This zoo director said the problem is the AZA decided to focus on only one subspecies (as @ThylacineAlive stated) and they would not let all the generic bears breed. He felt if they had let all the bears in the USA breed then we would not be in this state now.
Click to expand...

Of course if this had been done successfully we would have never stopped talking about how they should have managed the subspecies separately.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Another ZooChatter and I had a meeting with a zoo director a while back while eating lunch at his zoo. One of the topics that came up was the state of sun bears. This zoo director said the problem is the AZA decided to focus on only one subspecies (as @ThylacineAlive stated) and they would not let all the generic bears breed. He felt if they had let all the bears in the USA breed then we would not be in this state now.
Click to expand...

The problem would still have been that the bears were not breeding in general. I forget the specifics but I don't think there were many nominate bears in the US at the time the decision was made to start a new program so, even if they allowed all bears to breed, we would still have seen very, very limited breeding success. And considering, to my knowledge, all of the nominate bears are long dead now, that population wasn't viable either.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The issue isn't so much the lake of breeding knowledge as it is the animals themselves. The US decided to focus on the Bornean subspecies on the later 90s/early 2000s if memory serves and we imported a population of all rescued, ex-pet bears. Rescued/confiscated Sun Bears seem to be prone to reproductive issues, probably related the diet they received as cubs. This is a problem the UK nominate population seems to be facing for the most part as well.

I love Sun Bears, they're probably my favorite bear species (and the one I've seen the least) but there is no future for them in the AZA unless zoos want to commit to a brand new importation of bears from native range- which will likely never happen.

Bears in general are in a tough spot in the US. Asiatic Black Bears are a phase-out with very few individuals left, Polar Bears are in an extremely tough spot and I have my doubts that a long-term breeding population can be established at this point, and I genuinely doubt the future of Giant Pandas in US zoos. The Andean Bear population seems to have had some solid breeding success lateky, loth Bears have an optimistic future as well despite the AZA decision to cross the Sri Lankan subspecies with Indian animals from Europe, and Brown Bears and American Black Bears will always be around due to wild rescues. It won't be too long now before all the bear species can no longer be seen in the US.

~Thylo
Click to expand...
The sun bear conservation in Borneo is willing to send bears it’s a matter of the zoos can take them and have space for them . There are certain zoo’s that can still house them like SD , Oakland , Atalanta with considerable space . I feel the species should still be keep in zoos and not phased out .
 
Ok if we're ever gonna redo sun bear breeding in the AZA, then I'd rather first start by establishing a captive breeding program in both mainland SE Asia and in Borneo.

This is so that we can have an easier start with animals that are not only genetically new, but whose life histories are already well known.

In my opinion, the reason for the failure of the AZA sun bear program, with relations to how many bears were former pet/meat/bile bears was that they come with a laundry list of behavioral problems that puts breeding off the table.
 
GFgomez said:
The sun bear conservation in Borneo is willing to send bears it’s a matter of the zoos can take them and have space for them . There are certain zoo’s that can still house them like SD , Oakland , Atlanta with considerable space . I feel the species should still be keep in zoos and not phased out .
Click to expand...
Any space going towards sun bears is a space that cannot go towards sloth or Andean bears. I get it, nobody wants to see a species they're partial towards get phased out, but managing three or four exotic bear species simply is unrealistic, at least unless the number of "problem" black and brown bears needing homes declines. We no longer live in a world where zoos regularly house four or five bear species. The phase out of sun bears, in addition to the lack of breeding success, is to ensure there is a sustainable population of *at least one* Asian bear species in US zoos, the sloth bear.
 
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