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Bears

Bears are both beloved and maligned throughout the world, so it is no surprise that they are popular both in the wildlife trade and as the targets of sport hunters. Their use in traditional medicines in Asia and South America has put the world's eight bear species in great danger, and their intelligence and ability to learn has led to their exploitation by animal trainers in Asia, Europe, and North America. It is truly not a good time to be a bear.

The most common bear in the North American wildlife trade is the black bear, the only species found solely in North America. In the United States, black bears are also raised for meat, trophies, and for their gall bladders, which are illegally sold to traditional eastern medicine practitioners at home and abroad. Cubs are cheap and easy to find, but a bear cub is hard to handle, even moreso than tiger or lion cubs, and their needs for diverse nutrition can be difficult to meet. Exceedingly few veterinarians understand the medical needs of captive bears, and as a result, they tend to either live for quite a long time, or to die fairly quickly. Black bears are powerful, agile, and exceptionally quick; anyone without a solid understanding of bear behavior will find him/herself in frequent, often bloody, exchanges. The result is usually a bear that spends its days in confinement, with little stimulation or attention to its needs. Captive bears frequently need placement in sanctuaries, but few are equipped to accept them. In addition to captive black bears, wild bears sometimes get into trouble with their human neighbors, and government wildlife agencies may attempt to place them into sanctuaries as a humane alternative to euthanasia. Black bears are not always black; cinnamon phase bears are common, and brown, blond, and rust colored bears are seen fairly often. Blue phase bears, or glacier bears, and white phase bears, also called Kermode or spirit bears, can be found in parts of the Pacific Northwest.

Brown bears are among the most widespread terrestrial mammals in the world, and were once found throughout North America, Northern Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Today they survive primarily in remote areas. Subspecies of the brown bear include the North American grizzly bear, the Alaskan Kodiak bear (pictured), and various Asian and European varieties. Brown bears might weigh up to 1,200 pounds, and their size and temperament makes them more popular with trophy hunters than with misguided pet owners, however, they are still present in the animal trade in North America. Brown bears are also the dancing bears of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, where they are intentionally underfed in an effort to keep them smaller, and they spend most of their time on their hind feet, or undergoing brutal training sessions Their gall bladders are valuable in traditional medicine, but they are not as common in that market as the galls of other bear species.

Polar bears are found throughout the perimeter of the Arctic Ocean, in North America, Asia, and Europe. The bears rely in the formation of pack ice in the winter, allowing them to venture miles out to sea in search of their preferred food, seals. Pollution and global warming have severely impacted polar bear populations, and the discovery of a wild polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid in 2006 may be an ominous sign of things to come for the species. Prior to 1979, polar bears were common in zoos and private collections throughout the United States, but an amendment to the USDA Animal Welfare Act, calling for more expensive standards of care for polar bears as marine mammals, prompted many zoos and animal collectors to sell their animals or give them away to facilities abroad. As a result, captive polar bears are now quite common in Latin America and in Asian nations like Japan, where they receive horrific treatment and suffer in the hot weather. Few, if any, attempts have been made to compel the surrender of these animals to sanctuaries located in cooler climates, and as of 2007, no sanctuary in the United States is equipped for the long-term care of polar bears.

The Malayan sun bear is the smallest of the bears, about the size of a large dog. Its size has led many to believe that a sun bear would make a good pet, but the bears' long claws and moody disposition say otherwise. As with other captive bears, sun bears are sometimes de-clawed or even de-fanged in a futile effort to make them safer to handle. A truly tropical bear, sun bears need fresh fruit and prefer warmer temperatures, making them expensive to maintain. They are somewhat uncommon in the North American wildlife trade, but not unheard of, and they are quite common in the animal markets of Southeast Asia, where they are also killed for their gall bladders and their meat.

The Asiatic black bear is the most common bear in the bile trade; perhaps more than 10,000 bears are housed in compression cages in China, where their bile is extracted daily through plastic tubes permanently inserted into their gall bladders -- a surgery rarely performed by a qualified veterinarian or in sanitary conditions. Most of the bears die of infection within the first few years. This horrific practice goes on virtually unchecked, as animal welfare is generally not a priority in China. Wild populations of Asiatic black bears are also under tremendous strain from poaching and habitat loss. In some areas they are reputed as man-eaters, and are shot on sight. They are not common in captivity in the United States, but any animal that can be found in an American zoo can always be found in private hands; their captive numbers are sure to increase in the US.

The sloth bear is unique among bears in that its diet in the wild consists largely of insects. Sloth bears are frequently used as dancing bears in India, or sold as pets. As with most wild-caught animals, their mothers may be killed so that the cubs can be taken safely. Habitat loss and poaching have taken a toll on sloth bear numbers in the wild, and their populations continue to decline. Sloth bears are also victims of the bile trade, and they may be found for sale in North America, although not as often as other species. Little is known about the species' nutritional and veterinary requirements in captivity, making them a risky acquisition, even as bears go.

Spectacled bears are the only bear species found in South America; they live in the
Andes mountains of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, in habitats ranging from cloud forest to grassland to desert. These small bears are vulnerable to habitat loss and to poachers, who may sell their body parts to traditional Asian medicine practitioners, or use them for local medicinal and religious rituals. The spectacled bear is uncommon in the wild animal trade in North America, but it can certainly be found in private collections. It is fairly common in captivity in its native range, where its legal export from one country to another can be difficult, making transporting them to bear sanctuaries a tricky undertaking.

The poster child of the conservation movement, the giant panda enjoys a great deal of protection only by virtue of how close it has come to extinction. Only 1,200-1,500 remain in the wild, and a few hundred are maintained in captive breeding programs. The Chinese government has strict regulations protecting pandas, and thus only about twenty live outside of China, most of them on loan to zoos like the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC and the San Diego Zoo in southern California. While it is not entirely impossible, it is highly unlikely that giant pandas are readily obtainable in the captive wildlife trade, even in China. Their diets consist almost entirely of bamboo, making them extremely expensive to feed, and unlike other bear species, they do not readily breed in captivity. Thanks in part to a successful breeding program in Wolong, China, the panda's wild population is gaining ground, proof that China can overcome its environmental and animal welfare challenges.