South Lakes Wild Animal Park spectacled bears at The Lakes

These mixings are all very well, but what happens if the tapirs breed? Does the calf get shut away until it is adult size, or do the bears then have to rotate with the tapirs? It's the same as the raptor aviary. Anyone who has worked with birds of prey knows that they'll leave you alone usually, but if a bird lays a clutch of eggs it will go for your eyes...
 
is the enclosure really as small as it looks in that youtube video?

Personally I can't understand zoos' tendencies to mix large carnivores with smaller animals, whether its bears and foxes, bears and coatis/otters/tapirs, lions and meerkats, whatever, it just seems so stupid
 
Chlidonias said:
is the enclosure really as small as it looks in that youtube video?
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The enclosure is quite a good size, the video didn't show the extent of it to the left. The only thing I would add on the size, is that it is an okay size for a couple of bears, not the 4/5 they had when I visited.
 
taun said:
The enclosure is quite a good size, the video didn't show the extent of it to the left. The only thing I would add on the size, is that it is an okay size for a couple of bears, not the 4/5 they had when I visited.
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It`s smaller in size than Chester`s enclosure for Spectacled Bears and they only have to share it with a group of Coati at the moment.
 
zoogiraffe said:
It`s smaller in size than Chester`s enclosure for Spectacled Bears and they only have to share it with a group of Coati at the moment.
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Is there going to be another species mixed?

Chester have a much better enclosure thou & have the right amount of space for the number of bears they have.
 
I'm presuming no Spectacled Bear cubs were born this year at South Lakes?
If they were I'd be surprised if they could survive under this mixed situation which must generate some stress for the bears too. Also I heard the bear shelters are very open and face the public with no privacy. I hope they do redesign things as I feel at present 5 bears is too many and a couple of the females should be transferred to Chester's excellent enclosure to even things out for this species..
 
Pertinax said:
I'm presuming no Spectacled Bear cubs were born this year at South Lakes?
If they were I'd be surprised if they could survive under this mixed situation which must generate some stress for the bears too. Also I heard the bear shelters are very open and face the public with no privacy. I hope they do redesign things as I feel at present 5 bears is too many and a couple of the females should be transferred to Chester's excellent enclosure to even things out for this species..
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The indoor area is shocking! :mad: Basically a glass cage no more than 3m wide by the same depth and about 5m high. They have 2 or 3 of these indoor areas, which is housed at the end of the rhino/baboon house.

I doubt chester would take on more than one more bear, they are very keen on breeding them and are getting a little frustrated with problems with the new male getting on with Loja. Maybe a new female that could be rotated with the male might situmlate breeding there. Chester would have problems getting the bears in as they have areas outside they can den in.
 
It just seems odd to me that Chester have two spectacled bears in an excellent enclosure, and South Lakes have five in a not- so -excellent one!
 
Pertinax said:
I'm presuming no Spectacled Bear cubs were born this year at South Lakes?
If they were I'd be surprised if they could survive under this mixed situation which must generate some stress for the bears too. Also I heard the bear shelters are very open and face the public with no privacy. I hope they do redesign things as I feel at present 5 bears is too many and a couple of the females should be transferred to Chester's excellent enclosure to even things out for this species..
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The indoor Bear shelters are the old Tapir stalls very heavily converted for use by the Bears and are viewed from windows in the Rhino House opposite the Rhino stalls.
 
Remember that belfast retained their last male cub for several years due to not being able to place him. If South lakes are being allowed to hold 5 in such conditions, it may well be that there is limited space in the EEP for further breeding.
 
johnstoni said:
Remember that belfast retained their last male cub for several years due to not being able to place him. If South lakes are being allowed to hold 5 in such conditions, it may well be that there is limited space in the EEP for further breeding.
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I believe the 4 females at SLakes are two pairs of sisters and there's a recommendation to breed from one or two of them but not all. I think under present conditions successful breeding would perhaps be unlikely anyway. I still think it would be better if a couple could go to Chester, even if only to fill the larger exhibit, and not necessarily for breeding.
 
i think sending them to chester would be unlikely, and besides which i like the chester exhibit with just the two, plenty of space for the both of them. i think if the tapirs etc were removed then it woould be a fine exhibit for the bears to stay where they are (presuming the tapiretc indoor areas could be utilised by the bears)
 
i din't think the chester exhibit was that big, i suppose its the design of the exhibit, yoou can't really tell how far back behind the hill the exhibit goes.
 
zoogiraffe said:
You could fit South Lakes into the Chester enclosure 2 or 3 times at least.
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That is what I thought and why I made that comment. I realise South Lakes aren't likely to let any of their bears go, but its still a pity I think.
 
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