North American Sloth Bear Population

Wonderful news to see Sloth Bears returning to Fresno Chaffee.

Hopefully she won't be their only Sloth Bear, and a male will follow. Her move frees up space for her parents to breed again at Little Rock, and she herself may be paired up at Fresno Chaffee down the line.

 

Exciting to see a new holder for sloth bears in the US.

In terms of males that could likely go to Fresno to breed, I think Deemak of Smithsonian would be a good choice, because as @Neil chace said, Deemak is a genetically valuable male that should be put in a breeding situation.

 

One of the two males at Smithsonian would be a good choice. The other male (Niko, born 2014) is also a very valuable male, if not more valuable than Deemak.

 

Niko would be the more valuable male by far. Deemak is from one of the three well-represented lines in the Sloth Bear SSP. It really surprises me that Niko hasn't been given a breeding recommendation despite the fact he isn't from one of the three main lines.
These lines are:
- Jack x Thelma Lie (incl. Priya @ Idaho Falls and descendants)
- Knemo x Peanut Line (incl. Bhutan @ Woodland Park and descendants)
- Goof x Amy Line (incl. Hani @ Brookfield and descendants)

 

Maybe Deemak's recent transfer to Smithsonian will make way for Niko to be sent elsewhere; potentially to Fresno Chaffee. It would be a shame if they just let him sit in a non breeding situation and elect to use a well represented male (from one of those three lines you mentioned above) instead.

 

Keematee should be joining her soon as well.

 

Interesting. So it looks like Fresno Chaffee will hold only two girls; not a breeding pair as expected?

 

Those were the original plans, according to this source, but they may have been changed too! So I am not entirely sure.

 

I thought Keematee was sent to Miami for breeding? Do you have a source for her transfer to Fresno Chafee? I'm not saying your wrong, it'd just be a confusing choice for the SSP to send her to Miami and then send her to Fresno only shortly after.

 

Those plans were from 2021, so they could very much be outdated.

 

Oh, well in that case now that Keematee's been sent to Miami, I think it's safe to assume she will remain there.

Hopefully this means Frenso Chaffee are considering a male.

 

Update, due to very bad weather in California, Zaara's transfer to Fresno Chaffee has been delayed to at least the end of January.

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As reported on socials - Bhalu and Kayla at Philadelphia have welcomed their second surviving litter of cubs. Twins were born on January 2nd!

 

I'm glad that this population has been having a lot of breeding success. It's doing a lot better than either of the other TAG-managed bear populations. Unfortunately, however, there isn't exactly much space in the current holders to increase the population size beyond where it's at, with most holders at their max for individuals. Over the next few years, the Sloth Bear SSP really needs to try and recruit some new holders, in particular talking with the holders of both phase out bear species (Sun and Asiatic Black Bears) to ensure they switch to sloth bears. The species is a personal favorite of mine, and I love to see the population is doing well, and really hope that more zoos start holding the species so the population can continue to succeed. If the population doesn't gain holders, the population's breeding success may not continue for much longer.

 

Roger Williams and Virginia are most likely to switch to sloth bears in the near future, since Roger Williams is down to a single elderly moon bear, and Virginia recently lost sun bears (and will likely lose moon bears in the near future).

 

I don't want to speculate about specific zoos gaining the species, while there's a need for more zoos to keep this species, individual zoos may opt to replace a phase-out bear species with a non-bear, and that's okay too. There are also other zoos equally likely to switch to sloth bears in the future. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is down to a single, elderly Asiatic Black Bear, Topeka, Pueblo, Mesker Park, and El Paso all house single elderly sun bears, and Honolulu has two elderly sun bears. There are plenty of options in the future for zoos to acquire sloth bears as replacements for another bear species, I'm just hoping some of these zoos (or other holders of sun/asiatic black bears) actually make the swap.

 

I think Virginia and Roger Williams are more likely to swap to Sloth Bears than Cheyenne Mountain is. The former 2 zoos have dedicated, well-developed Asian zones and no other bears outside said zones. Meanwhile, Cheyenne Mountain has grizzlies in Rocky Mountain Wild, their Asiatic Black Bear habitat isn't really connected to anything else, and they recently demolished their old monkey house and lost their last mountain tapir. I'd rather see them do something else with that area than plonk some sloth bears into a mid-tier habitat. But that's just what I think will happen.
Also, not sure how relevant this information is, but Reid Park no longer has Sloth Bears as part of their plan for Pathway to Asia. They were shown in the first version of the flythrough, but the updated flythrough and map don't have them listed.

 

Are either of the Smithsonian's sloth bears pure subspecies?

 

Philadelphia Zoo - Update

The twin cubs are both males and have been named:

1.0 Harper (January 2, 2023) Bhalu x Kayla
1.0 Kelce (January 2, 2023) Bhalu x Kayla

 

Shiva should be returning to Cleveland in the coming weeks as their tropical Bear complex is nearing completion