@Zoofan15 Yeah the similarities between Sun Bears and Asian Black Bears can be seen definitely, would be curious if any zoos had kept a subspecies of Asian Black Bear with a Sloth Bear at some time due to the closer adult size being closer. Yeah I think your point about if the Sun Bear and the Asian Black Bear(s) had been together as cubs without any issues of aggression coming from the Black Bear cub(s) then the Zoo would have thought that they had a very successful co-habitation of two very beautiful black-coated Asian bear species living together (would imagine the term 'complimenting each-other' may have been the thought at the time). Its probable too that like you said they co-existed without issue until like many unfortunate incidents there happened to just be that unfortunate day where before any keeper intervening could occur the poor Sun Bear was dead.
That's interesting about Auckland Zoo's three exhibits, did they have different Brown Bear subspecies over different decades? This is just an assumption but were their three Bear exhibits alongside one another?
Yeah with Perth Zoo's 1955 constructed (concrete nightmare) Bear row (apparently also had expanded work done on it in 1959) I think it was 6 enclosures side by side all up and yeah Perth Zoo probably held the most subspecies of Brown Bear at any one time during that era. With the passing of the (male?) Kodiak-Grizzly cross in Jan '87 and their Hokkaido Browns in mid '85 (and before that their Polar Bears leaving in '80 and their young Asian Black Bear in the '70s I'm assuming going elsewhere) they were then able to build better (though very small by todays standards) exhibits for their remaining Bears - Belinda, Mawar and Shah the Sun Bears (one or two of those three may have been a Bornean Sun Bear as PZ apparently kept Malayan and Bornean Sun Bears at the same time at some point) and Barney and Missy their Syrian Brown sibling pair. As Tetrapod, Hix, Newzooboy and others have recalled the then vacant other Bear enclosures in the old row were then later occupied by Striped Hyenas, African Hunting Dogs and possibly Maned Wolves and Dingoes until the row was (to the relief of its residents and the general public) put out of use before being bulldozed.
There's footage on Youtube of either Belinda, Mawar or Shah pacing in their exhibit and when reaching the wall rolling on it and reversing their pace: (6:55)
{lots of other animals too the Orangutans, Cotton-Top Tamarins and Red-Handed Tamarins, poor Tricia alone in her cell of an old enclosure, a Lioness I would bet everything was the mother of Alistair, Otter and Little Penguins in their old enclosures including Boobies and Terns that co-habitated with the Little Penguins, Saltwater Crocodile (the late Simmo's predecessor) in the old pond near the old Gibbon and Macaque rows, Emu, Red Kangaroos, Numbat, Maras, the Siamang pair in their second last enclosure they inhabited until construction on the African Savannah started, the Hamadryas Baboon, Sulawesi Crested Macaque groups in their old pens and a Muller's Gibbon, the Zebras in their pre-Savannah enclosure, the Himalayan Tahrs in their exhibit they occupied until leaving the zoo in late '94 and construction of the old Butterfly House began on the spot their exhibit stood). (Zoo part of video starts at 2:29) {it's interesting too for how much of the footage you can still hear the Siamangs calling out in the background, fortunately not long after this they got an aviary like exhibit that was about twice the size of the one seen in this video) - Sorry this is a Sun Bear forum and got sidetracked
