Wow never knew a Sun Bear was responsible for the death of a person in any zoo in Australia in the past, really have personally underestimated what they are capable of based naively on their smaller size to their bigger more intimdating other Bear cousins.
@steveroberts I was surprised to hear this too, especially considering sun bears were less common across our region’s zoos up until the mid-20th century, compared to other bear species. I’m aware of at least two fatalities - both involving Polar bears (Adelaide Zoo in 1920; Perth Zoo in 1972).
@Zoofan15 A friend of my uncle was at Perth Zoo with his family as a young kid the day the young man was killed by the two Polar Bears in April '72, but didnt witness anything directly (thank god for him, would of been awful to see) as says was in another spot of the zoo at the time (but apparently not too far off), just sudden screaming and commotion and people running towards or away from to get help, word being spread that a man had jumped into the Polar Bear enclosure and was being ''eaten by the bears'' (obviously meant mauled but apparently thats what was being shouted, well the larger (presumeably male) bear had the young man's head in his mouth at one point according to newspaper accounts but guess thats still mauling; would of been eaten if his body wasnt retrieved). Said it was a very hysterical scene and ..''ladies were crying and other people shouting in horror'' (he didnt mention this next part, read it in the newspaper accounts, apparently the victim was acting like was under the influence of something and was doing strange antisocial and violent things to some other visitors like from memory hitting a child and trying to choke a woman before he took a jump into the Polar Bear pool and swam over to the bears). **uncle's friend never said the month or year when he told me the story when I was about 9 or 10, just researched on Trove years later.
Oh with Adelaide Zoo in 1920 wasnt that the caretaker/groundskeeper being swiped through the bars and having his arm severed, poor fella.
@steveroberts Auckland Zoo’s history book A Tiger by the Tail briefly mentions the incident at Perth Zoo involving a man under the influence, who was killed outright by the bears after diving into their pool. News articles reported the man kicked a teenager and pushed a pregnant woman prior to entering the exhibit. The incident at Adelaide Zoo involved a keeper apparently, a 65 year old who died in hospital the following day. Another news article reports a keeper lost his arm to a brown bear at Adelaide Zoo in 1902, but appears to have survived.
@Zoofan15 Man have got to finally read that book (will order a copy online), yeah terrible things (for the victim of PZ's Polars') to do but then to go and do a thing like jump into the Polar's pool sounds like whatever was going on for him that day he may very likely of had a death-wish possibly spurned on by the influence of substances, sad event, and traumatic for all the witnesses of, both visitors and staff.
That poor old fella at Adelaide Zoo hey, oh right (animal/zoo)keeper not groundskeeper/careatker (though technically caretaking is involved with being a (animal)keeper of course lol), probably wasnt too far off from retirement and then lost his life in an unforeseen moment (they surely would not of known the Polar Bears could reach that far through the bars at the time).
@Zoofan15
Yeah also with the Sun Bear caused fatality of Mr Newman at Beaumaris, and our shared surprise about. It was actually googling about 2 years ago about Sun Bears' range in Asia because hadnt realised how far their range also went to the north-east, that found this article or paper at the time (think saved it but its been 2 years lol) about how think in the Assam eastern region of India from memory just north of Burma and Bangladesh and very much juts out as its own standalone region of India geographically, but apparently there have been a series of deaths of forest workers there over the years that were caused by Sun Bears (at first and even still a bit, keep thinking ''oh surely it was 'Moon' Bears or even Sloth Bears involved, but if it is accurate found it very surprisng that Sun Bears were responsible).
It could be with such a significantly high human population in the region which could mean more forest workers by number of individuals/'head count', that there is increased contact with Sun Bears in the wild statistically, and that could be a probability reason for the number of attacks maybe. Plus the nature of the work (tree cutting, wood chopping, timber gathering) given where this work takes place, being a cause for territorial reactions by the Sun Bears; similar to seeing Orangutans bang on bulldozers doing forest clearing in Borneo and Sumatra which can't blame them for doing (but very very sad when a person loses their life regardless), though not sure if Sun Bears have this kind of reaction and with all respect to their huge intelligence may be getting a tad anthropomorphic about lol.
