Zoological Collections - Enrichment Design

?

Enrichment Design for a Sun Bear

The Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest bear species in the world and lives in the Tropical Forests of South East Asia. They use their long tongue to extract honey and grubs from cavities.

For this Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) I would like to encourage natural feeding behaviours and get the Sun Bear to use its long tongue in order to reach some honey inside a long tube. Ideally, the tube would be clear and placed near a glass viewing window so that the public can see the Sun Bear’s long tongue in action. If this is not possible, we could insert multiple clear tubes in a log and get the bear to find the log by smell and then extract the honey using its tongue. We could also potentially put some grubs in the middle of some tubes. 

For this Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) I would like to encourage natural feeding behaviours and get the Sun Bear to use its long tongue in order to reach some honey inside a long tube. Ideally, the tube would be clear and placed near a glass viewing window so that the public can see the Sun Bear’s long tongue in action. If this is not possible, we could insert multiple clear tubes in a log and get the bear to find the log by smell and then extract the honey using its tongue. We could also potentially put some grubs in the middle of some tubes. 

We would measure the success of the enrichment by seeing whether the bears actually use it and are able to get the honey and/or grubs out of the tubes. If they are uninterested or cannot get the grubs/honey out then the enrichment is unsuccessful. If they cannot get the treat out of the tubes it is likely they would become frustrated which may cause agonistic behaviours within the group.

1 of 1

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Other resources:

See all Other resources »See all Animal Management resources »