Out of curiosity, has anyone seen bear exhibits where small canines are housed with them? For example grizzly bears with coyotes or polar bears with arctic foxes? I know the small canines do sometimes follow those species in the wild, so wondered if zoos have housed them together. Or would the bears just have an appetizer with those dogs?
There is plenty of zoos in Europe that keep brown bears together with corsac foxes and this combination also exists with Asiatic black bears. This seems to work in these places, though there is a risk of the fox ending up being killed. polar bears with polar foxes would be asking to get the foxes killed, as polar bears are the most meat loving of the bears
Off the top of my head, I can think of: Syrian Brown Bear/Corsac Fox (Heidelberg, Gotha) Asian Black Bear/Corsac Fox (Dierenrijk Mierlo) Hybrid (polar x brown) Bear/'Silver' Fox (Osnabrueck) Indian Sloth Bear/European Golden Jackal (Rheine - though they weren't mixed the day I was there due to the jackals having pups) American Black Bear/Grey Wolf (Woburn) European Brown Bear/Grey Wolf (Ouwehands Zoo and others) And I'm sure I've seen more. They seem to work OK, from what I've seen.
I remember seeing a red fox with brown bears at Dartmoor Wildlife Park some years ago but not sure if it was part of the zoos collection as it left the enclosure through a pipe in the enclosure wall.
Canines.. The Red Fox/Brown Bear thing at Dartmoor was a genuine collection mix. The remaining two elderly bears currently live separately from the single fox in the collection.
Many years ago in Arizona: 2 American black bears with 2 gray foxes (Arizona Sonora Desert Museum) 2 American black bears with 2 pumas (Out of Africa). They tried mixing gray wolves with these as well, but the wolves did not like it and had to be separated.
