Thanks for the link Dan! Interesting that in the photo above the sloth bear enclosure appears to be much more green and lush than in the photo from the zoo's website.
@snowleopard
It became green again during the last months after two younger sloth bears (1,1), born at Leipzig ("Franz" and "Myrte"), left the zoo to live at Naturzoo Rheine. Especially the young male "Franz" destroyed the grass again and again by searching for ants - a typical behaviour of sloth bears.
It is really important for sloth bears to be allowed to dig and search for vertebrates and small invertebrates in the soil. It protects them from malignant diseases like the cholangiocellular carcinoma (LANGGUTH, Leipzig, 2004).
The sloth bears are sharing this enclosure with 12 rhesus macaques. One smaller enclosure is situated alongside, used for the breeding male or mother and children, another enclosure is behind the scenes. All of them are brilliant, many places to hide, shadow places, lush vegetation, soil to dig, trees to climb.
