Am I right in thinking that Colchester's sun bears were, until fairly recently, on some sort of contraceptive? I seem to recall that they were actively trying to avoid breeding them while they were in their temporary enclosure.
Unsure. I don’t know what their situation was either at Rare Species Conservation Centre (2007-2010) or in the old enclosure at Colchester (2010-2014). All I know for sure is that they have been hoping to breed during the time that they have been in their new enclosure (2014-2018) as the construction of this was designed with purpose built breeding facilities.
We'll have to disagree on what constitutes a successful breeding, and what a good success rate is. However, regarding Wellington, they obtained their initial pair in 1992 (aged three and four years) and the breeding female died in 2009. That's a period of 17 years.
Well, for me it is the first step of many to rearing a cub successfully, so it is progress. Better than infertility, lack of mating, lack of pregnancy, lack of live birth and nothing happening at all. Ah, as you had said ‘a span of twenty years’, I had thought that you were looking at the last twenty years and not anything previous. Although I guess as previously you had said ‘three cubs in twenty-plus years’ (I actually don’t know the history of Wellington Zoo prior to the arrival of this pair in 1992 as I was only two years old at that time; did they have a previous breeding couple that failed to produce, as you said the zoo only had Bakti and Chomel and Sean and Chomel as breeding couples for 17 years?) so I probably should have double checked. Either way, the number of births in Oceania is still greater than the number of births in the UK - that part is for certain.
Next time I am at Colchester I will track down a keeper and ask them about the situation at Colchester as it is a curious one as after 10 years together surely something would have happened by now. Also beccasunbear out of internet when is a female sun bear considered too old for breeding?
Also (got the Burgers Zoo site to translate) would the stud book keeper consider moving either Jo-Jo or Srey Ya and bringing in a new Male or female?
I don’t know about what is officially considered too old for breeding for a female but I have previously known of a successful birth to a female aged 21 in Japan, I am unsure if there have been older mothers elsewhere but I wouldn’t be surprised.
I personally feel a swap between JoJo and SreyYa (Colchester) and Toni and Milli (Chester) wouldn’t be a bad idea if there has been no success from either pair a few years down the line.
On Zootierliste, Olomouc has now been removed from the holdings list, but I spoke with them today and they tell me that they still have one old female, Bara. Usti has confirmed to me yesterday that their holding is still one male and two females. I am waiting for responses from Decin and Hodonin to confirm their current holdings.
This is now the third report I have heard of this being the case, so I believe it to be true. Thank you. Maybe their website is due a little update, as they still have a photograph of a sun bear under the section detailing their listings, which was what made me curious initially.
Now also confirmed Decin directly - Imro the old male (the father of female Bora at Belfast Zoo) is definitely no longer with them. So my work here is done - I now know exactly which zoos in Europe have sun bears and which bears it is that they have. Now all I have to do is visit them all. Should be easy - one trip combining Basel and Zagreb, probably around March time this year; one trip to visit all four Czech zoos likely in May; one visit to all three French zoos later in the year (probably going to have to drive for this one and I am not a confident driver at all having only just passed my test less than a year ago, so trying to put it off for a while as I build my driving experience) and then finally Łódź as soon as the Orientarium is completed. Then on to USA and Asia I guess! Hello to ‘sunny’ days!
Might want to prioritize your visit to the States. Sun bears are on their way out in these parts... if you put off too long you won’t have many places to visit. If you’re interested, I can give you a preliminary list of zoos that have recently held sun bears to investigate. Nice work on this list! I wish we could do this for all of the species on Zootierliste.
Thank you, that would be so helpful! Yes, I am concerned about this because there are many elderly bears there too! My first trip is likely to be California.
Seems like there is an eventful time ahead of you then Anyways, when you´ll have certain date for your Czech trip, and you don´t mind company, PM me, maybe I would be able to join you for a day or two. It´s always pleasure to meet people with the same passion.
I will. I am hoping I won’t be waiting to long to confirm! I really need a big trip to look forward to right now!
I’m unsure at this point. It really all comes down to time and money. But the honest answer is, probably not. I’m not going to lie, my job isn’t very well paid at all (I guess that’s what happens when you don’t get any qualifications because you’re too poor and too ill to finish school) and I have only quite recently bought my house and my car, so I have a fair bit of expense to deal with at the moment already. Also, I need to save as much of my annual leave as I can as at the moment I am constantly having to take days off work to go for job interviews in a desperate attempt to try to better my situation, so I can’t really use too much of this time up right now as I know I’m going to be needing it imminently. Extra zoo days mean extra days off, extra hotel costs, extra transport costs, extra admission costs, extra food costs, so I don’t know if I can really justify it. For me, seeing sun bears brings me an immense amount of happiness, and truly nothing else gives me that level of enjoyment. Maybe that’s stupid, but genuinely, I don’t really care. I have spent the last few years of my life having such a tough time and I need things like this to get me through; it gives me something to look forward to and something to keep going for. That’s why I do what I do. So the sun bears are, and will always be, my focus.
Hi Becca, I am so jealous of how many sun bears you have seen all around Europe! I live in Colchester so of course Jo-Jo and Srey Ya are my favorites! Although we have also done a trip to Chester and Edinburgh to see the sun bears where as well. Have you ever been to Free the Bears in Cambodia? My husband and I are going there in April and we are so excited! If you have been I would love to know more about your experience.
