snowleopard

Sun Bear Exhibit

Dec 2008.
Easily one of the best Sun Bear exhibits after Columbus and Oakland. San Diego is 4th I would say.

Don't forget the Sun Bear exhibit at the Honolulu Zoo, which might be way better than the one in SD Zoo.
There are some photos in the zoo's website, but they don't show that much of the exhibit:
Sun Bear Enrichment
Sun Bear

I found this video on Youtube that shows the lush exhibit (you'll have to forward it to about 25 secs into the video to see the exhibit).
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaY-i2jCHM]YouTube - Bear Attack[/ame]
 
It looks a little bare to me. (pun not intended!)

A few plants and trees would do wonders to it though


You have not seen it in person, and it works excellent for the bears. Their is more than what meets the eyes than in this picture.

@Mario: Your right. I completely forgot about Honolulu's excellent sun bear habitat.
 
You have not seen it in person, and it works excellent for the bears. Their is more than what meets the eyes than in this picture.

Granted, however what I see with my eyes in this picture, is a sun bear enclosure lacking in climbing oppurtunities and hiding places.

You can look at any number of bear exhibits and each contain thick bushes and branches. I know you are a fan of the San Diego Zoo and from pictures of their sun bear exhibit i've seen, that looks a very impressive exhibit. Shady with lots of plants and lots of branches.

Sun Bears live in dense forest, so require some areas of shade and they are also the most arboreal of bears, so a handful of trees is inadequete.

What else is in the enclosure that isn't shown in the photo? If there is a large planted area, then I retract my comments.
 
I've walked past the enclosure several times and the bears were no where to be find because the were hiding. I am just saying you can't truly know how good an exhibit is until you have seen it in the flesh.

Never have I seen the bears pace, so they must be doing something right.
 
I've walked past the enclosure several times and the bears were no where to be find because the were hiding. I am just saying you can't truly know how good an exhibit is until you have seen it in the flesh.

Never have I seen the bears pace, so they must be doing something right.

Where were they hiding though? Off-show areas? There doesn't appear to be anyway where they could hide in this enclosure

It seems spacious enough and I'd hope that a zoo with Miami's reputation would provide proper enrichment so i wasn't suggesting the bears would pace.

It's not a particularly bad enclosure, I just feel it's not particularly good either.

As Snowleopard often comments on Gorilla enclosures, this enclosure seems more suitable for hoofstock.
 
this seems a good time to ask - why is it that miami metro zoo seems to be largely devoid of any large trees? was this because of the hurricane that tore through the zoo some years ago?

i must say, its doesn't come across from the photos as a particularly attractive zoo in terms of landscaping.
 

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