American Black Bear at Woburn, 22/07/12

Ursus americanus

Three bears out and about - none of them further than 2m from the car door as we passed. Wonderful views.

Woburn's are the only American Black Bears in the UK currently.

I see you now have three Bears species for the '2012 Challenge'.

Yes - Spectacled (Chester), Malayan Sun (Colchester), American Black (Woburn). Quite likely I'll make it to Whipsnade (Brown/Sloth) and Dudley (Asian Black) before the year's out, so will hopefully make six but probably not going to make it to Scotland for Polar or Giant Panda so full set looking unlikely!

(if you count overseas zoos as well I'm only missing Giant Panda in 2012 now, however!)

These animals must be ancient now. I wonder with which bear species Woburn intend to replace them ?

I think the plan is to replace both the bears and the wolves with their european equivalents

foz said:

I think the plan is to replace both the bears and the wolves with their european equivalents

Click to expand...

Would be a shame to not get some more (Younger) Bears in when these 2.3 (?) pass on. I'm pretty sure these have bred in the past, can anybody clarify?

I've an idea, as these are the last ones in the UK rather than shooting them for sport in the US isn't it possible to import a few over to the UK rather than ending their lives for no good reason.