My personal favorite exhibit at the zoo has always been the former sun bear/current sloth bear exhibit. I have always loved this exhibit because the bears can get so close to the visitors and also interact with them. There is a place along the edge of the exhibit glass where they can come up and sniff the to try and smell what's on the other side. The bears also like to blow air out through this narrow gap. I have always considered the inhabitants of this exhibit, the sun bears Muffin (who now lives in the animal hospital in retirement due to her skin cancer which she has survived nearly half a decade past the six months she was expected to survive after diagnosis) and the late Ringo (who was diagnosed with skin cancer around the same time, but his cancer spread and he died) and the sloth bears Keesha and Balawat (who are both divas and don't always get along with each other), close and beloved friends of mine. They have been there for the good times and the bad. You can analyze the setup of an exhibit all you want, but the individual animals that reside in that exhibit help make an exhibit successful or not. The glass that the sloth bear exhibit has and the new grizzly bear and black bear exhibits will have allow the bears to connect and interact with the visitors more than most moated exhibits really allow. The bears in these exhibits just seem so far removed and also harder for visitors to bond with the bears and care for that individual bear species as a whole. I have been an Akron Zoo member since 2000, so I have seen all of the changes at this zoo and I really like a lot of the exhibits at the zoo and my animal friends that live in them. But that first time I saw Muffin's wrinkled face looking at me right up by the glass, I fell in love with bears for the very first time. When Muffin retired to the hospital, I cried the last time I saw her on exhibit because I knew I might not get to see the old girl again. A month later, Keesha entered my life. She spends a lot of time by the glass. She often sit by the glass upright as if she is sitting on her throne and the visitors are her royal subjects. There are diva issues here after all. Balawat has issues from when her was being raised as a cub. This and the fact that Keesha is ten years older than Balawat is probably the reason they do not always get along. Keesha is Lucy and Balawat is her brother Rerun. I think that is the easiest way to explain the relationship. They are a true example of 'The Odd Couple', but I love the two of the all the same. My closeness to the bears and my ability to feel a connection to them is why the sloth bear exhibit is my favorite exhibit at the Akron Zoo.
