Zoo Boise Sloth Bear News

Ituri

Ituri

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15+ year member
Zoo Boise's sloth bear heading to Seattle


Medina, Zoo Boise’s female sloth bear, is leaving Oct. 21 for Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo as part of a species survival program. This is the last weekend to visit her at Zoo Boise.

Medina is part of an SSP -- or Species Survival Plan. Accredited zoos across the country participate in SSP, which is a captive breeding program designed to ensure a genetically healthy population of an endangered species. Medina is part of the sloth bear SSP.

“The SSP committee has recommended that Medina go to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to breed. While we are sad to see her go, we fully understand that this is necessary to ensure the long-term survival of this species, which has dwindled to less than 20,000 individuals in the wild,” says Steve Burns, Director of Zoo Boise.

Sloth bears are native to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Loss of habitat is the biggest reason for their decline. Sloth bears primarily eat insects in the wild. Their sharp claws allow them to tear into termite mounds, ant hills and bee nests. They also have lips they can pucker like they’re going to whistle. They stick those lips up to a hole in an insect nest and suck out the inhabitants.

“SSP programs have been successful in not only keeping populations of endangered species alive in zoos, they have also helped by providing endangered animals to reintroduce back into the wild. Examples are California condors, golden lion tamarins and scimitar horned oryx.”

In a couple weeks, Zoo Boise will receive an Asiatic black bear from the zoo in Garden City, Kansas.

In addition to saying goodbye to Medina, visitors can also visit the new Mr. & Mrs. Clarence B. Wilmot African Plains Exhibit, which features lions, giraffes and an assortment of other African animals.

Zoo Boise is located in Julia Davis Park in downtown Boise. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission is $6.50 for adults, $4 for seniors age 62 and older, $3.75 for children age 4-11 and free for children under age 3. For more information, click here.
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Zoo Boise's bear grotto is inadequate for breeding.
 
That's good news, Sloth bears are so unique animals, they are passive and peaceful but at times they are so deadly, your pet tiger won't want to play with him! ;)
 
As a side note, Medina is the only sloth bear to ever be displayed in the state of Idaho. That won't be true for long, as Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls will be opening a sloth bear exhibit next spring.
 
That's a good move, Medina is a highly ranked female. Congrats with the addition of an Asiatic Black Bear. This is now a rare species in US captivity...this species is being phased out in favor for more endangered bear species (ie Sun & Sloth).
 
Yeah, at one point I believe the plan was to send Medina to Seattle, and send there two male siblings to Boise, but they den together and Zoo Boise's denning facilities aren't large enough. It'll be nice to have a "moon" bear on display here, I've only ever seen that species on a few rare occaisions.
 
I believe those two male sibilings will be going to the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, KS and Tautphaus Park Zoo will be getting two sibling males from Little Rock.
 
On an unrelated off-topic note, I hear Zoo Boise is pursuing warthogs so I'm curious as to find out where they will be coming from.
 
okapikpr said:
That's a good move, Medina is a highly ranked female. Congrats with the addition of an Asiatic Black Bear. This is now a rare species in US captivity...this species is being phased out in favor for more endangered bear species (ie Sun & Sloth).
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Sorry I'm not an expert on bears but what does it mean by highly ranked female?
 
Probably the most likely situation, I doubt that Sloth bear ( like most bears) are social creatures,
 
Saving Baloo: Zoo Boise’s Work With Sloth Bears |

Commonly attributed as the character “Baloo” in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, the sloth bear has a long history alongside humans. Unfortunately, its history outside of children’s novels hasn’t been so heartwarming. Dating back to the 13th century, sloth bears have been systematically taken from their mothers at a young age to be trained to dance for money before royalty, tourists, and villagers. The bears’ snouts were pierced for a rope to fit through, and for many bears, being led around by a rope was the only life they would ever know. Additionally, sloth bear cubs are poached for their use in Chinese medicine, and their habitat is continuously encroached upon by humans.
Zoo Boise recently announced a project to help sloth bears in captivity and in their natural habitat in India. The Zoo’s general policy is to contribute a percentage of every capital project budget to the conservation of that species in the wild. “Zoo Boise feels that by contributing 10 percent of the project budget to field conservation it demonstrates our commitment to conservation to donors and enables zoo visitors to not only see the animal, but also help protect it in the wild,” explains Director of Zoo Boise, Steve Burns.
That promise held true when the Zoo decided to invest $500,000 in the design and construction of a remodel of their sloth bear exhibit: $50,000 will go toward sloth bear conservation in the wild. In this venture, Zoo Boise has partnered with Wildlife SOS, a non-profit devoted to conserving India’s wildlife, after witnessing its extensive and successful work in ending the practice of dancing bears in India. The first $18,000 installment will be used in developing training manuals to help law enforcement agencies identify smuggling and poaching, and includes a step-by-step guide on how to prosecute wildlife crime. The second part of the funds will go toward purchasing a corridor of land connecting two tracts of sloth bear habitat.

Copyright Zoo Boise.

Sloth bears are a part of the Association of Zoo’s and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan®, which aims to manage and conserve select and typically threatened or endangered species populations. Projects like that of Zoo Boise are a perfect example of accredited zoos and aquariums making significant contributions to conservation which provide animals with much, much more than the “bear necessities”.
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