Yes, I have been twice (nowhere near enough) in November 2015 and May 2016. It’s like bear heaven. 90+ sun bears and 40+ moon bears all in one place! It’s where my avatar picture was taken.
So in relation to this, it seems as though now a UK zoo (Chester) has also been confirmed as having the one European sun bear birth that occurred in 2017, although the cub also died on the same day. So we have confirmation of fertility, mating, pregnancy and live birth within the UK, which makes me feel a bit more hopeful for the future, although no successful rearing this time (hopefully it’s possible in the years to come). Also, I hadn’t realised before that Chomel had actually given birth to six cubs in total (three successfully reared) - I read in a news article that her 6th cub, Sasa, was the 8th sun bear to be born in New Zealand, so I wonder when the other two cubs were born to make that so (if this is accurate).
I only know of the six. I suspect that if there were eight then the extra two were otherwise-unpublicised stillborns/deaths from that Wellington pair (Chomel and Bakti).
Wow that’s amazing that you have been twice! We are already planning our next trip and we haven’t even been once! It is going to be so amazing seeing so many bears in one place. Is there any advice that you would give to us before we go?
Thank you. I agree that this seems the most likely explanation (if accurate at all, of course). Although five cubs having died and three cubs having survived would be pretty sad.
Just the usual advice for any hot country, really - make sure you take lots of water, loose clothes, hats and mosquito repellent! And of course your camera.
First off, hi becca The female colchester sun bear was on contraceptives before the move into their new enclosure. Here is a decades old study that deals with the topic and as all of the studies to no conclusion (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.556.2474&rep=rep1&type=pdf) As to which sun bear possibly could breed, there are only the following bears (male) that have breed with their partners. Chica in Cologne, Johannes in Berlin, Myanmar in Usti and as Becca pointed out, Teddy in Madrid. Chica and Myanmar are wild born, Johannes and Teddy first generation zoo born bears. The situation in the female population is actually no different. The breeding females are Bali in Cologne, Tina in Berlin, Barma in Usti, Anabelle in Madrid and Josefine in Münster. With respect to each and every other sun bear in european zoos, I would not call them possibly breeding regardless of the individual bear being male or female. Some male bears (well to be fair, two I know of) have been tested for their fertility and one was ruled sterile (Frodo in Arnheim) and one is 'iffy' (Ernst/Adam in Jihlava). Three female bears have also been tested positively for breeding (Bunga and Bola in Arnheim and Aja in Jihlava). I believe it is fair to say, until either Chester or Colchester start breeding (Belfast I guess will most likely not, due to the age of the female bear), regardless of the survival of the offspring, there currently is one breeding sun bear couple in a zoo in Europe and that would be Myanmar and Barma in Usti Nad Labem. The transfer of a male bear from Edinbourgh to Arnheim seems to be one of the first reasonable decisions/ movements that has happened in the sun bear population in Europe in the last 10 years. The fact, that a sterile male bear (Frodo) will move to a zoo with a female bear (Josefine) that has bread already kind of counteracts that. It is maddening to the n-th degree that the most social and breeding bear all over Europe (Johannes) is bound to stay in Berlin with his mother. He should be send to Arnheim, his son (Frodo) back to Berlin and one of the Edinbourgh guys should be send to Münster. That would make sense but alas..... On the issue of breeding success. Newest studies indicate, that the earlier the bears are introduced (ideally as sub adults) the better the harmony. Which in many ways is supported by the breeding successes in the 70s and 80s in Berlin, Münster, Cologne and Basel. Currently this seems not to be the basis for population planning in zoos, as way to many pairs are build well past their subadulthood. For example, Indera (today in Belfast) was socialized with a young female bear (Charlotte) from Cologne in Sandwich, but the possible couple was not kept together after the first closing of the RSCC. At this point - unless the new studbook-coordinator really engages in the betterment of the sun bear population in zoos, strategically move bears around, try different pairings, import more and younger pairs - the bears will disappear out of zoos within the next 10 to 15 years.
Hi Sabine, lovely to see you here! I hadn’t realised that you were a member of the forum. I sent you an email a while ago (when I was first planning to visit Arnhem / Rhenen / Berlin / Münster / Cologne) but not sure if it came through. Of course I agree with so many of your points here. I hope that both Somnang and Rotana will move on elsewhere sooner rather than later. I really don’t understand the decision to move Frodo to Münster. I also don’t understand why Johannes stays in Berlin. On the basis of the studies indicating that the earlier the bears are introduced, the better the harmony for breeding, then JoJo and SreyYa should potentially be quite a successful pairing. I think this probably explains the case for Myanmar and Barma too. I dearly hope that things will change a lot imminently; as you said, the future looks very bleak otherwise.
Hey @beccasunbear, don’t have the time to go through it more but here is (I hope) a comprehensive list of North American zoos that hold or might hold sun bears: San Diego Oakland Topeka (1.1) Pueblo El Paso Honolulu (1.2) Rolling Hills? San Antonio (1.0) Gladys Porter? Audubon Little Rock Mesker Park (1.0) St Louis (1) Atlanta (2) Akron (1) Cleveland? Columbus? Virginia (1.1) Catoctin Zoo (MD) Miami? Upon reflection, there could be a couple of private zoos that I didn’t pick up on.
Oh, excellent! Thank you! Well, there’s plenty to be keeping me busy there for a little while! First trip will be Oakland and San Diego for sure as I’ve wanted to do this for ages, and then I think St Louis as seeing a picture of their male printed in a newspaper was how I first ever found out what a sun bear was to begin with!
Have you visited Basel Zoo yet? You mentioned you were going to try and get there in Feb. I'm visiting this weekend
I'm not sure the sun bear at Basel is all that showy. And the enclosure certainly isn't a visual delight either. Better to enjoy the joys of the upper part of the zoo.
Thanks @FunkyGibbon, I'm looking forward to my first visit to Switzerland, albeit only brief as spending most of the weekend in France!
With the current weather you would be very lucky to see her indeed. Like any sensible person she prefers to stay inside in a Swiss February
For the reason stated above, I decided to postpone my trips to Basel and Zagreb (I plan to visit both in one go) due to the cold weather! I need to make sure I have a decent chance of seeing these two old ladies when I make the journey, so I plan to hit these two zoos in either May or June now, and Czech zoos in April instead. Please let me know your impressions of Basel, I would be interested to know!
We are visiting Mulhouse as well, looking forward to their collection of lemurs. Have you visited this collection? We have most of Sunday free as well but will probably spend that time looking round Mulhouse itself.
It didn't make the cut last summer, unfortunately. Next time I go to Switzerland I'd like to visit it.
