Malayan Sun Bears in Australasian Zoos (Discussion)
- Thread starter Zoofan15
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One of only two zoos in Australasia (Alongside Taronga) to have ever had every bear species throughout their history (Polar, Brown, Black, Sloth, Sun and Giant Panda); besides Andean.
I’ve done some research and Melbourne Zoo has also held Polar bears, brown bears, black bears, Sloth bears, sun bears and Giant panda.
I also discovered Melbourne Zoo are at least one of two zoos in Australasia to have mixed different bear species and are perhaps the only Australasian zoo to have bred a hybrid.
A female European brown bear was paired with a male Himalayan black bear, which resulted in a hybrid cub born in 1927. The female of the pair was noted to be distinctly smaller, but the dominant force of the pair
The hybrid cub was still at the zoo five years later in 1932.
Melbourne Zoo was noted to have the following bears at that time:
Polar bear
Grizzly brown bear
Russian brown bear
American black bear
Cinnamon bear (colour morph of American black bear)
Himalayan black bear
Malayan sun bear
Sloth bear
And to think, we all thought Melbourne Zoo had an extensive species list in the 1980’s!
Melbourne Zoo’s collection at that time was ranked one of the best in the Southern Hemisphere and it also would have ranked highly on the world stage.
Another article states Melbourne Zoo were offered a brown/black hybrid in 1931 by an animal dealer, who was amazed to learn they already had one. They were considered a unique specimen due to the difficulties in breeding purebred bears, let alone two different species.
It was noted Melbourne Zoo bred the two species together as they couldn’t obtain a mate for either bear from their own species at the time.
@Zoofan15 So they actually were first and foremost going to at least attempt the have Bears reproduce with co-specifics and the birth of the hybird Himalayan Black/European Brown was because MZ wanted to have cub(s) born at their zoo but couldn't source more co-specifics.
Can imagine from the info that's been sourced by you and some of our other awesome comrades on this site over the years Melbourne certainly could easily have been one of the most species diverse zoos in the southern hemisphere for sure.
@Jambo Had almost forgotten that as far as the records go, no Andean Bear individuals have lived at any zoo in Aus' or NZ in the past (think there was a mention of Perth Zoo but the description only matched a type of American Black Bear and the 'South America' mention was a mistake by the journalist)
Can imagine from the info that's been sourced by you and some of our other awesome comrades on this site over the years Melbourne certainly could easily have been one of the most species diverse zoos in the southern hemisphere for sure.
@Jambo Had almost forgotten that as far as the records go, no Andean Bear individuals have lived at any zoo in Aus' or NZ in the past (think there was a mention of Perth Zoo but the description only matched a type of American Black Bear and the 'South America' mention was a mistake by the journalist)
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Correct. Almost all bears born in zoos were sourced via animal dealers, with captive breeding a rarity.
An article in 1931 noted Melbourne Zoo’s lack of success in breeding Polar bear, with the cubs dying as newborns. Taronga Zoo had successfully bred the species by this time; while Auckland Zoo wouldn’t see success in rearing a Polar bear cub until 1960, which was preceded and succeeded by several cub deaths.
@Zoofan15 Now we know looking back too what really would not have helped either largely (although like you pointed out and found out there were successful births and matings) was the inadequate enclosures they were kept in during those eras until extremely recently, but again as has been pointed out many-a-times a lot of animals have had long histories of reproducing multiple generations in very below-par living conditions in zoos in the past even up until the 1970s/1980s etc. Auckland's struggle initially with their Polar Bears birthing cubs is unfortunate but nice about the 1960 born cub surviving (was only about two years ago on here that I learnt from you that Auckland still their last two Polar Bears Ingrid and Joachim until 1995).
Chomel's birthing of Arataki and Madu in 1999 was the first surviving birth of any Sun Bears in our region right? I remember the important mention that their births were significant obviously but in this moment I couldnt remember if if was a first ever event or a first in (say) fifty years event like sometimes is noted after an successful birthing at one of our region's zoos?
Chomel's birthing of Arataki and Madu in 1999 was the first surviving birth of any Sun Bears in our region right? I remember the important mention that their births were significant obviously but in this moment I couldnt remember if if was a first ever event or a first in (say) fifty years event like sometimes is noted after an successful birthing at one of our region's zoos?
Yes, it was the first successful rearing of Malayan sun bear cubs in the region. Wellington Zoo bred several unsurviving sun bear cubs between 1996-1998 which to my knowledge were the first in the region.
Wellington Zoo would also achieve the second successful sun bear rearing in 2006 (again to Chomel); with two further cubs reared successfully in Australian zoos in 2008.
@Zoofan15 Yeah I remembered from your biography writing of Chomel's life about the unsuccessful births she had (though as you discovered and shared many of the cubs were born healthy it was Chomel having difficulty with suddenly having a cub and surrounding environments impact on her state of mind), its interesting how our regions big zoos have mostly had quite a significantly long history in keeping Sun Bears many times over the past century but was not until '99 and Chomel's birthing of Arataki and Madu that any Sun Bears were actually born and, well in the case of Arataki due to Madu's passing aged 2, lived to adulthood.
I think zoos were so focussed on the postage stamp mentality of collecting species (the quality of a zoo was judged on the number of species they held) that many would have been content with a single sun bear - in Wellington’s case, shoehorned in with the Himalayan black bears!
Exhibits were basic and offered little privacy. There were many incidences of Polar bear cubs being eaten by the mother (or sire) at Taronga Zoo - with it only later being acknowledged across the region’s zoos how important separation of the mother prior to birth was.
Auckland Zoo noted on the subject of breeding Polar bears in the 50’s that if the mother was not isolated, the newborn cubs may be eaten by her or the other adult bears and the staff would have no idea a birth had occurred - something which has surely happened across many zoos in the region.
Auckland Zoo was interesting in that it switched the bears around. By the 1960’s, the brown bear pit had been divided into two exhibits and repurposed for black bears and Sloth bears; while brown bears moved into the old black bear pit. The simplest explanation is the size of the bears - brown bears being significantly larger.
The three original bears exhibits (the other being for Polar) were all small by today’s standards, but dividing one allowed the zoo to house an additional bear species, which was a priority during that era. They also had sun bears by this time (housed near the entrance).
They don’t appear on maps from the early 80’s, so I’d guess sometime during the 70’s considering they were listed on a map from 1965. It’s hard to say when they arrived at the zoo as previous maps list the pits as housing ‘bears’ without denoting the species.
The earliest map I can find of the exhibit divided in two is from the 1950’s, which may offer a clue as to when they exhibit was divided up and another bear species brought in.
Auckland Zoo’s Sun Bears
The first mention I can find of sun bears at Auckland Zoo is from a article dated July 1948. It states a male sun bear had died, leaving behind a female. The male was estimated to have been over 20 years of age. It wasn’t uncommon for zoos to receive bears from animal dealers as juveniles or adolescents, so it’s possible this estimate was based on the fact this bear had arrived 20 years prior as an immature animal.
November 1952 found the zoo between sun bears. A male American black bear was moved into their exhibit in August that year while it’s exhibit was renovated for the arrival of Himalayan black bears. This may refer to the dividing wall put in place I previously referred to - with Sloth bears eventually replacing one of the two.
An article from April 1966 details the import of a male Malayan sun bear from Bedford Zoo. It was intended as a mate for the zoo’s female (Ann), following the death of her previous mate (David).
The first mention I can find of sun bears at Auckland Zoo is from a article dated July 1948. It states a male sun bear had died, leaving behind a female. The male was estimated to have been over 20 years of age. It wasn’t uncommon for zoos to receive bears from animal dealers as juveniles or adolescents, so it’s possible this estimate was based on the fact this bear had arrived 20 years prior as an immature animal.
November 1952 found the zoo between sun bears. A male American black bear was moved into their exhibit in August that year while it’s exhibit was renovated for the arrival of Himalayan black bears. This may refer to the dividing wall put in place I previously referred to - with Sloth bears eventually replacing one of the two.
An article from April 1966 details the import of a male Malayan sun bear from Bedford Zoo. It was intended as a mate for the zoo’s female (Ann), following the death of her previous mate (David).
That’s news to me. I’d be interested to know what zoo they were held in. This was around the time Melbourne were phasing out species left, right and centre so they’d be my first guess; although Adelaide had recently exported their Polar bears overseas, so they too could be a possibility.