American Black Bear Exhibit

Aug. 2nd, 2014.

Ummmm............ what?

Are these nautical black bears? Are they in dry dock?

I think they are in a prison yard Pine grove zoo penitentiary

The whole black bear complex is a bit of a unique setup, with 3 consecutive bear enclosures all in the center of the zoo. The two exhibits on either side are not too bad as there are large grassy sections but this middle one is pure cement. The bear balanced on the log is crossing a pool area and the lives of the bears could be exponentially improved with the addition of natural substrate.

Exactly. There are lots of things that could be done to improve this enormously with little cost and not too much effort. It makes me so angry to see something that could so easily be improved.

I have long thought that as mammal species go, the bear - any bear species in fact, generally speaking, tends to be the "worst housed animal" in the zoo.
Bears, more than any other mammal, often seem to get a raw deal when it comes to zoo enclosures. Though I don`t really know why that should be exactly.

I must admit when I saw this photo my instinctive response was to wonder what the animals had done to deserve that level of punishment.

Bears dig, they climb, they are very strong, very smart, and very dangerous. When all of those factors are taken into consideration there really is still not much excuse for this enclosure.

Putting down bark litter, laying scent trails, and carrying out scatter feeds at irregular intervals wouldn't cost a fortune, and it would improve the quality of this setup immeasurably.

This makes me want to cry. I'm glad their other exhibits for the bears are a little better.

Does anyone happen to know what the 6 rungs on the right hand side wall are for? It looks like the bears are meant to construct a ladder with the planks of wood in the exhibit to escape.