Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens Enrichment

Odd how the bears in Dartmoor don't do it, and their enclosure isn't as big as others, where they do pace. Maybe it's because all they used to do was beg for nuts, and had no chance to pick up any stereotype behaviour.
 
ashley-h said:
Odd how the bears in Dartmoor don't do it, and their enclosure isn't as big as others, where they do pace. Maybe it's because all they used to do was beg for nuts, and had no chance to pick up any stereotype behaviour.
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It is entirely an individual behaviour. Just because one individual starts pacing, doesn't mean they all will. Maybe the Dartmoor bears are just lucky. Although they do have to live in Dartmoor...
 
I know, I just find it odd how none of them do it at all.
 
The Dartmoor enclosure is very good, and it is significant that two of their bears lived in a cobblestone pit next to the manor house for many years prior to their transfer to the current wooded exhibit. It is possible that begging the public for food may have been very good stimulation for animals in otherwise diabolical surroundings in the era that preceded behavioural enrichment.

Colchester zoo once housed a group of (syrian?) brown bears in a cage near the old sealion pool (now the second penguin exhibit), and the bears were constantly begging for food until the mid-eighties when this site was redeveloped into two glass-fronted bear exhibits. Only then did I see head-weaving in any of Colchester's bears.
 
They lived in the fox pit?
If so that's abosuletly abysmal! That's not even really suitable for foxes.
 
Not the fox pit itself, slightly to the left of that enclosure is an area that I think may have been used to quarantine the new lynx. I think this is where the old bear pit was.
 
Ah, I think I know where you mean. Still, even though it's bigger than the fox pit, it's still terrible lol.
And I still like their current enclosure, I just think Whipsnade's is better.
 
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