sun bear enclosure

not a nice enclosure in comparison to the ones for tigers next to it, but at least there\'s a fair bit of room compared to some bear cages I\'ve seen. Unfortunately the back doors were gated off which meant that the bear couldn\'t get out of the sun. That\'s him sitting in the back right corner in the only patch of shade available.

October 2009
review here: http://www.zoochat.com/238/medan-zoo-north-sumatra-112525/

I wonder if the bear has already gone insane? It would be intriguing to know how often the sun bear sat in the right-hand corner of its barren enclosure, as avoiding the heat of the day would perhaps be the only noteworthy enrichment on offer.

this enclosure really was a stark contrast with the tiger ones right next door. I honestly don't know why zoos think bears need to be kept on concrete. Any forms of enrichment for the poor creature would be easy to provide - even simple rotting logs. To be fair, with regards to the lack of shade, I expect the iron awning mounted on the back wall is supposed to be there to provide shade - its just that at this particular time of day (unfortunately, the hottest part of the day) it isn't much use. There may have been a reason the doors to the back rooms were closed as well, as in the similarly-designed tiger and orang-utan enclosures the doors were all open giving the animals access to the shade (which I was quite impressed about, as even in "good" Western zoos animals are often forced to remain on-show at all times)

I thought the bear exhibits at Zoo Negara in Malaysia were bad but they are like heaven compared to this!

have a look at the ones in the Bukittinggi Zoo gallery