What's a Polar Bear Doing in the Tropics? - Animal Concerns ...

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disintegrating objects in an enclosure which can be easily broken into piecesand consumed obviously poses a potential risk to the well-being of thebears.What’s a polar bear doing in the tropics?64www.acres.org.sg
Feeding methodsThe feeding methods apparently used by the zoo may not be in the bestinterests of the polar bears.In the wild, polar bears are active hunters and forage feeders. They arecontinually searching for opportunities to hunt seals, walruses and to findsupplementary food sources such as carrion. Some populations are alsoknown to eat berries, eggs and kelp during the times they inhabit terrestrialenvironments, such as boreal forest, tundra and coastline.In a captive situation, it is not practical to provide polar bears with seals orwalruses to hunt. However, there are certain feeding methods that aregenerally recognised to be the most beneficial to their welfare.International bear husbandry standards (e.g., EEP, AZA) emphasize theimportance of feeding bears at least three times during the day. 8 In captivesituations it seems that bears benefit if their food expectations are metpromptly, as early in the morning as possible, to alleviate the stressassociated with the anticipation of food. 36 Random scatter feeding andmodification of feeding techniques may prove beneficial for polar bears. 38According to the zoo keepers at Singapore Zoo, the polar bears are fed theirmain meal in the evening inside the indoor cages. This method of feedingone main meal a day in the evening may lead to stress, as the bears areanticipating their food all day. This also constitutes a predictable, dullfeeding routine. As a result, the amount of time spent feeding is likely to beshort, offers few challenges and requires little, if any, foraging effort.The Polar Bear Protection Act, Manitoba, requires that those keeping polarbears must ensure that the regular feeding schedule is supplemented byirregularly timed and located feedings involving foods not normally served. 11The recommendations by the various zoo associations and animal welfaregroups are in general agreement about the importance of using a variety ofmethods of food delivery (Appendix VII). Feeding methods that allow forextensive foraging, natural manipulation, and processing including scatterfeeding, hiding food and burying food in soft substrates are widelyrecommended. Some of the guidelines suggest giving the bears some of theirfood at irregular times of the day. The UFAW and WSPA guidelines bothrecommend feeding the main meal early in the morning. Some guidelinessuggest that polar bears benefit from food that floats.During the course of this study there was little evidence of any scatterfeeding or any other type of feeding enrichment methods being employed inthe outdoor enclosure. There did not appear to be anywhere in the outdoorenclosure where food could be hidden or buried to make feeding times moreWhat’s a polar bear doing in the tropics?65www.acres.org.sg
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animal is diving. They also eat car
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individual’s own choices. This ab
Page 20 and 21: Following his investigations into t
Page 22 and 23: What’s a polar bear doing in the
Page 24 and 25: Accommodation20 All animal accommod
Page 26 and 27: Table 3.1 Categories of behaviours
Page 28 and 29: TABLE 3.5 Lying flat behaviour prof
Page 30 and 31: 3.2.1 Adaptation to Arctic coldPola
Page 32 and 33: 3.2.2 Reasons for panting and lying
Page 34 and 35: 3.2.3 Heat stress experienced in Si
Page 36 and 37: the pool area. However, theeffectiv
Page 38 and 39: 3.2.4 Algal growth in furInuka cove
Page 42 and 43: Table 4.1 Categories of behaviours
Page 44 and 45: TABLE 4.4 Activity pattern of Sheba
Page 46 and 47: TABLE 4.6 Abnormal behaviour profil
Page 48 and 49: 4.2.1 Prevalence of abnormal stereo
Page 50 and 51: to more space, a more complex, quie
Page 52 and 53: Guidelines and LegislationsGuidelin
Page 54 and 55: equirements stated in the Province
Page 56 and 57: problem with these old designs is t
Page 58 and 59: SubstrateThe polar bear enclosure d
Page 60 and 61: In the 2004 report, Acresrecommende
Page 62 and 63: FurnitureThe enclosure does not pro
Page 64 and 65: Private areasThe lack of private ar
Page 66 and 67: 5.1.2 Problems in husbandryUse/acce
Page 68 and 69: At a workshop on the Behavioural Ne
Page 72 and 73: interesting. At no time were the be
Page 74 and 75: 5.2.3 Condition of teeth 10Sheba ha
Page 76 and 77: demonstrating species-appropriate b
Page 80 and 81: Today there is just one polar bear
Page 84 and 85: Providing natural substrates in enc
Page 86 and 87: Stimulating olfactory and rubbing b
Page 90 and 91: Singapore Zoo states that they are
Page 92 and 93: 22. Wood, D. 1995. Bears. Whitecap
Page 94 and 95: 66. Baars, D. and Weegenaar, A. 199
Page 96 and 97: APPENDIX I: GUIDELINES FOR ENCLOSUR
Page 98 and 99: • For polar bears the ratio of wa
Page 100 and 101: APPENDIX IV: GUIDELINES FOR SUBSTRA
Page 102 and 103: APPENDIX VI: GUIDELINES FOR PRIVATE
Page 104 and 105: • Environmental enrichment should
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