Whats really appaling is that even this hell hole of a pit could be improved with natural substrates, a climbing structure and a bunch of toys. That is certainly not a matter of money. It would still be extremely bad but at least a bit better than now. The true shame for the staff and management at Buffalo is, that seemingly nothing is done !
(Yes I noticed the tire - I have a big problem with tires in bear enclosures, as they are too often the enrichment excuse for a lazy keeper: "see, I give them enrichment, they have a tire" and nothing else is ever done. The tire becomes boring for the bears very quickly, and after initial play, they mostly ignore it.)
In no way do we wanna start a feud on this but certainly feel you have crossed a line to call out staff as being lazy based on looking at a photo of an exhibit.The Buffalo Zoo while it has faults does provide alot of varoius enrichment for its animals as well as keeper chats with the public.As with many zoo's right now is all about money times are tough
It is by no means my intention to start a feud with anyone ! I am sorry if you are personally offended by my remarks and I admit that my comments can be seen as a bit harsh. But lets look at the facts:
It does not cost money to provide certain things that could enrich the life of a bear: even a wheel-barrel full of sand, some rotten wood (with insects), straw or fresh browse would be helpful for this bear (there are many other options). While it is indeed not possible to tell, what exactly is done to enrich the life of this particular bear from a single photo, experience (and the photo) tell me that it is probably not enough or hardly anything at all.
Now, why is that ? What could be the circumstances behind the problem ?
- lack of knowledge about enrichment and the needs of a bear; that is hardly an excuse these days with the tons of information that is out there in books magazines and the internet. After all, it is your job as a keeper or curator to be well informed about the needs of your animals.
- management dos not allow certain types of enrichment; that happens, e.g. they are afraid, that if an old enclosure is improved, they will not get money for a new one in the foreseeable future. This is playing politics on the back of the animals. Also, they might be afraid that their pool water gets dirty and substrates could clog the drain. There are means that can be taken against both problems, it is not an excuse, otherwise they need a plastic bear instead of a real one.
- there is not enough time in the workday to do something; Really? All of the things that I have mentioned don't take much time to do. They are a matter of priority. It has to be understood that it is more important to provide enrichment rather than bleaching the bear den for the sixth time this week or cut the food into minute pieces rather than giving the items whole.
- the people involved don't really care; As sad as that is, it does happen.
Don't get me wrong, I love zoos. I have worked in zoos for the past three decades and it upsets me, if huge problems exist, because simple solutions are ignored. A lot depends on time and money, but not everything and that should be said.
I did not really forget that. While I have a lot of sympathy for overworked keepers (being one myself ) it is, as I said, a matter of priority. It seems they have the time to keep the pit and the pool absolutely spotless. That requires sweeping, hosing, clorinating and scrubbing the pool and so on. Having worked under very tough time restraints over the years myself, I know that you have to take a good look at what is really needed and what is not. Often work can just be organized in a different way. That frees up time for enrichment. There is even a good chance, the workload can be significantly reduced with natural substrates on the ground !
Finally - and that is a point that I don't really like to touch - but if the zoo is not able to take care of its animals properly (enrichment and decent enclosures included), then they should not keep them, i.e. reduce the number of species.
First of all we would like to make it clear that we do not condone this exhibit it truly is one of the worst bear enclosures in all of North America.Having said that our problem here is assuming that because the exhibit is bad that the animal is not cared for and that enrichment is not provided.Based off of many visits to the zoo we simply feel that not to be the case.We kinda feel you painted the entire Buffalo staff with one broad stroke based on one photo of an outdated exhibit.
Lets move on to what should be done to make improvements.It is our opinion that Buffalo should move out its elephants.They simply do not have the space or resources to house elephants these days.This should have been realized when they committed major dollars to renovate its barn,which really has not even scratched the surface on what needs to be done with the exhibit.The Zoo could then commit all of its resources to building a world class bear exhibit.
I appreciate your comments and I think we are moving on some common ground.
I just want to make clear, that by no means did I paint the entire Buffalo staff as bad. Looking at some of the other pictures (I have never been to Buffalo), there seems to be some very nice enclosures and particularly the gorillas seem to have proper enrichment, even though the enclosure leaves much to be desired for. That said, the bear situation appears to be bad and I believe it would be way too easy just to blame the outdated enclosure.
The only good news is that a renovation is in the plans for the bears, And i remember visiting the zoo in the early 90s and compared to today it was much worse, considering the Gorilla Exhibit was the best thing at the time. They have done away with the old cat and primate houses and have built some amazing new exhibits, the plan is for about 20 years too so it will just take some time for it all to come together, but they will turn the Buffalo zoo to one of the nations best.
Having going to this zoo multiple times, perhaps I can give some insight on the enrichment of the bears. Could you bears use more enrichment? Absolutely. Even the simple suggestion of dirt would come in handy for the old bears with walking problems. But do the bears hardly get enrichment? No. I know for a fact that each day the keepers will go into the exhibit and hide small snacks in the walls and underneath toys/logs for the bears to find them. Sometimes they will put them up high so the bears have to stand on their hind legs to get them. The polar bears get the most enrichment. I have seen multiple toys and Anana, the female polar bear, makes the most out of them. The other bears don't really have toys in their exhibit and I'm wondering if it's because they are older and it wouldn't do anything for them. They also have Bear Awareness day where they all get treats hidden inside buckets. So yes the zoo could do a lot more with enrichment, but they are still making an effort.
I must say I agree with one decision they did make which was moving their oldest Andean bear into the Vanising Animals exhibit with soft grass and dirt. She is suffering from cancer and can hardly move these days. I think living in this exhibit is a nice way to live out her last days. Although it's probably unfortunate for the Andean bear who was in that exhibit, who had to move to one of the grottoes.
