Post by grrraaahhh on Sept 2, 2011 15:57:22 GMT -9
This is a thread that should have happened awhile ago. Credit to Warsaw for the inspiration & following material:
Material Extract
According to a survey of the CBET in 2008/2009 with updates in 2010 at least 4600 bears are living in zoos and sanctuaries (fig.1), half of them in Asian countries. Still this number is underestimated and reflects more the incomplete regional representation in the expert team than the actual number as only four South East Asian countries are included.Within each region the native bear species make up the majority of the bear collections in zoos and sanctuaries. These are brown bears in Europe,Andean bears in South America and American black bears in North America. Asian species dominate the bear collections in zoos within their natural range. The thousands of Asiatic black bears in farms used for bile production and those in road zoos and private households in South East Asia are not counted here (Kolter & Zee 2008).
Another prerequisite to use captive bears for raising awareness are appropriate keeping conditions which provide the stimuli necessary for the performance of natural behaviours including the diverse foraging patterns. For solitary species like ursids sufficient space per individual is crucial for the maintenance of inter-individual distances when using the resources in the enclosures.Considering that in the majority of cases several bears are kept at one location, enclosure sizes below 500 m² for groups of bears are most probably inappropriate. As listed in table 1 not all regions the CBET has notice from meet conditions which are suitable for conservation education.
Release projects of captive bred bears in general failed (see Huber 2010). There is only one exception worthy of mention. Captive born brown bear cubs which were removed from their dams and transferred at a very early age to the biostation “Chisty Less” in the forests of the Tver region in Russia were successfully released according to Pazhetnov and Pazhetnov (2005). The bears are reared and released according to a specific method based on findings of sensitive time windows critical for the establishment and fixation of behaviours which are relevant for survival in the wild. One obviously crucial aspect is the minimization of contact to humans in terms of time spent with and number of familiar humans in particular in the period the following reaction develops. Training of natural foraging skills in the forests is considered to be important too Pazhetnov and Pazhetnov (2005). Even if release of bears for conservation purposes would become widely accepted in the conservation community (see below) the ontogeny of each the threatened bear species has to be studied and the sensitive periods have to be identified in intense, time and budget consuming research projects, as it cannot be taken as granted, that the ontogeny has the same speed in all ursids. There might be more effective ways to spend money for bear conservation.
Zoos’ Role in Conserving the Diversity of a Small Taxon from the Perspective of the Bear Specialist Group. Lydia Kolter – Kölner Zoo and IUCN/SSC Bear specialist group (2010).
www.waza.org/files/webcontent/documents/cug/annual_confernce_cologne_2010/Proceedings 2010 Cologne_s.pdf
Material Extract
According to a survey of the CBET in 2008/2009 with updates in 2010 at least 4600 bears are living in zoos and sanctuaries (fig.1), half of them in Asian countries. Still this number is underestimated and reflects more the incomplete regional representation in the expert team than the actual number as only four South East Asian countries are included.Within each region the native bear species make up the majority of the bear collections in zoos and sanctuaries. These are brown bears in Europe,Andean bears in South America and American black bears in North America. Asian species dominate the bear collections in zoos within their natural range. The thousands of Asiatic black bears in farms used for bile production and those in road zoos and private households in South East Asia are not counted here (Kolter & Zee 2008).
Another prerequisite to use captive bears for raising awareness are appropriate keeping conditions which provide the stimuli necessary for the performance of natural behaviours including the diverse foraging patterns. For solitary species like ursids sufficient space per individual is crucial for the maintenance of inter-individual distances when using the resources in the enclosures.Considering that in the majority of cases several bears are kept at one location, enclosure sizes below 500 m² for groups of bears are most probably inappropriate. As listed in table 1 not all regions the CBET has notice from meet conditions which are suitable for conservation education.
Release projects of captive bred bears in general failed (see Huber 2010). There is only one exception worthy of mention. Captive born brown bear cubs which were removed from their dams and transferred at a very early age to the biostation “Chisty Less” in the forests of the Tver region in Russia were successfully released according to Pazhetnov and Pazhetnov (2005). The bears are reared and released according to a specific method based on findings of sensitive time windows critical for the establishment and fixation of behaviours which are relevant for survival in the wild. One obviously crucial aspect is the minimization of contact to humans in terms of time spent with and number of familiar humans in particular in the period the following reaction develops. Training of natural foraging skills in the forests is considered to be important too Pazhetnov and Pazhetnov (2005). Even if release of bears for conservation purposes would become widely accepted in the conservation community (see below) the ontogeny of each the threatened bear species has to be studied and the sensitive periods have to be identified in intense, time and budget consuming research projects, as it cannot be taken as granted, that the ontogeny has the same speed in all ursids. There might be more effective ways to spend money for bear conservation.
Zoos’ Role in Conserving the Diversity of a Small Taxon from the Perspective of the Bear Specialist Group. Lydia Kolter – Kölner Zoo and IUCN/SSC Bear specialist group (2010).
www.waza.org/files/webcontent/documents/cug/annual_confernce_cologne_2010/Proceedings 2010 Cologne_s.pdf
