Care for Bers Education Programme

Guidelines for Indian Bear Education Programmes

Zoo Outreach Organisation & ALERTIS - fund for bear and nature conservation

Himalayan black bear

Himalayan brown bear

Sloth bear

Sun Bear

Care for Bers Education Programme

Care for Bers Education Programme Guidelines

for conducting an Indian Bear Education Programme

Zoo Outreach Organisation & ALERTIS - fund for bear and nature conservation

Guidelines, packet items, and t-shirts Designed, written and compiled by Education Team of Zoo Outreach Organisation

Graphics by Sonali Lahiri

Typesetting, printing and distribution by Printing unit of Zoo Outreach Organisation

Care for Bers Education Programme

ALERTIS - Fund for bear and nature conservation All over the world, bears are mistreated and killed for money or the entertainment of people. Furthermore, people are a threat to the bear’s natural habitat and the bear is threatened with extinction. In order to act against all this, Alertis (before: International Bear Foundation) was established in 1993 on the initiative of Ouwehand Zoo in Rhenen, the Netherlands. From september 2002 IBF started a collaboration with Ouwehand Conservation Fund. International Bear Foundation has therefore changed its name into Alertis - fund for bear and nature conservation. Alertis is engaged with the conservation of the eight bear species and of the other animal species living in the same habitat.

Zoo Outreach Organisation Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO) is a positive and constructive, sensible and scientific conservation, research, education and (wildlife) welfare organisation. ZOO is based in India but covers projects throughout South Asia and occasionally South East Asia. ZOO supplies educational materials to zoological gardens and conservation organizations to conduct programmes for school children and other zoo visitors on various aspects of species and environmental conservation. ZOO collaborates with zoos all over the world to provide technical materials to help zoos in South Asia solve some of their problems and achieve their objectives of conservation, research and education. ZOO was established in Mysore in 1985 and now has a working office in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu since 1987. ZOO is the host of the Asian Regional Network of International Zoo Educator (Association), representing I.Z.E. throughout South Asia.

ZOO’s Project with Alertis - Fund for bear and nature conservation 1. Produce simple educational materials for zoos to use in education campaigns about bears

2. build a data base of current atrocities (and near atrocities) involving bears in India using newspaper and magazine clippings and informal reports.

3. to copy and circulate appropriate articles from the bear books supplied by ALERTIS to bear holding zoos

Care for Bers Education Programme Contents

Introduction 1 Developing a programme around a species or event 3 Getting the best help from the press 5

Background Information - Resource material

Bears in general 9 Asian Black Bear 12

Sloth Bears 13

Brown Bear or Grizzly 15 Sun Bear 18 Bears - Endangered species 19 Bears in Indian zoos 23

Activities and games How many bears can fill a T-shirt 27 Survival of the fittest 28 Passing the story 29 Find your Rakhi partner 31 Just a line 32 Complete the bear 33 Complete the bear in his habitat 34 Blind bears 35 Bear race 36 Essay writing 38 Rangoli bears 39

For all ages Drawing and story 40

Memory game 41 Dancing bears 42 Debate (for older kids) 43

Care for Bers Education Programme Come and “Bear” with us ! Introduction

Bears are a favourite animal with the world’s children and many adults as well. Many of us have wonderful associations with bears from cartoons, from our “teddy bear” in childhood, and from fables and stories. Bears have all the characters which make them popular animals – they are fuzzy and round; they tend to bumble around; they are not burdened with a “maneater” image (although they do cause lots of trouble to humans, both to property and to life if one is in the wrong place at the wrong time with a bear).

Bears are suffering today from all the problems of wildlife and environment in general. Bears are also particularly targeted for performing, for use in traditional medicine and even for food. There is a lively trade in bears and this, along with habitat destruction and fragmentation, is starting to take its toll on the population. We have to start taking more aggressive action specifically for bears as a taxon group and to do that we need to understand – and become passionate about – their problems.

Education is a way to help the general public develop awareness and passion about bears. Hence, the current programme of Zoo Outreach Organisation and the International Bear Foundation to “star” bears for this year’s wildlife week and throughout the coming years as well.

This booklet contains material which is intended to help an individual or a team of people who want to educate a group or groups of school children (or even adults) about bears.

The resource material in Part I can be used by anyone for any lecture or presentation to any age group, understanding that material has to be focused at the age and educational background of the target group.

The activities in Part II are related to the “Bear Bag”, a packet of materials on the four Asian bears which we are distributing to zoos, NGOs, and other government institutions to help them organize an education programme for a group of school children.

We have tried to include a variety of activities so that you could have some sort of interactive event with almost any age group.

We of ZOO and ALERTIS hope that the individuals and institutions which receive these materials and conduct programmes will not stop with this but will go on highlighting the importance of bears as creatures adding immense biological, ecological, cultural and emotional richness to our lives. We in India are so lucky! How many countries can say they have 4 species of bear !

So, please come and “Bear” with us! We will produce more bear materials and invite you to share them with people of all ages.

Care for Bers Education Programme Developing a Programme Around a Species or an Event (Taken from the ZOO ED Book, Sally Walker, Zoo Outreach Organisation, 1998)

Designated programmes for a species or an event can be long term, short term or seasonal. For example, the Indian Sangai education programme was a long term programme, involving research and surveys as well as educational activities to a great variety of target groups. This extended over six years. A tiger cub naming ceremony held by the Friends of Mysore Zoo was a “one off” or short term event. The birthday of a popular animal could be held yearly. World Environment Day is held every year.

Conducting programmes around species and/or events may enable a zoo to have something going on throughout the year.

The following outline suggests ways of using species and events to focus your educational activities.

ELEMENTS OF DEVELOPING A PROGRAMME

1. Functions Functions may include — lectures, parades, parties, ceremonies, press conferences, discussion groups, contests, competitions, special tours, slide shows (both in-house and outreach), etc.

2. Materials Posters, newsletters, brochures, packets, brochure-stickers, stickers, stamps, rubber stamps, t-shirts, calendars, postal cards, carry-bags, etc.

3. Partners Collaborate on programmes with other organisations such as Rotary Club, nature clubs, conservation organisations, climbing and adventure clubs, churches, schools, businesses.

SPECIES

Endangered species, particular 1. An endangered species in your zoo. 2. An endangered species not necessarily in your zoo but in India. 3. An endangered species not even in India but as a symbol in the world.

Endangered species, general 1. A group of endangered animals which can highlight the destruction of a particular habitat or biome 2. The concept of endangered species/”vanishing species” 3. A “representative” group of endangered animals, i.e. a mammal, a bird, a reptile, a fish, an amphibian, an insect.

Engaging/attractive species — or — the very opposite 1. An “attractive” animal that is not necessarily in trouble but can serve as a focal point to attract public attention. 2. An “attractive” young animal that has a birthday, or is being “named” etc. that can serve as a focal point.

Care for Bers Education Programme

3. An unattractive or unpopular animal with a negative image but has a story to tell itself can be played upon to make a point on an environmental issue.

Official / commercial animals 1. Your official, state or national animal 2. An animal that is they symbol or logo of a well-known industry of company (that might fund some programme).

EVENTS

Events can be global, national, state, local, in house

1. World events such as World Environment Day, World Forestry Day, etc.

2. National or state national events (do not necessarily have to be connected with wildlife or environment, i.e. Republic Day in India is a free day for children at the zoo; Mother’s Day could focus on zoo animal mothers and their babies and allow all mothers with a baby in free of charge).

3. Local events — can mean your city or your own zoo. Zoo Week, Clean-up Day in your community, Health day, etc.

4. In-house events — Zoo special events such as animal birthdays, zoo centenary, or national and international scientific meetings.

Care for Bers Education Programme GETTING THE BEST HELP FROM THE PRESS

Writing a Press release : Pointers for pleasing all Media

1. PROVIDE COMPLETE INFORMATION : · who · what · where · when

2. Keep the item of LOCAL interest (but you can bring in foreign contacts)

3. Keep it as short as possible (one page double spacing best). If it is too long they will edit and if they edit they will get many things WRONG

4. Rephrase information for different media

5. Use a quote if possible. Quote your boss (zoo director) . Have one spokesman for the zoo. (NGOs – get permission from Zoo before speaking to press or giving press release)

6. Type everything you send. (if they can’t read it, they won’t use it.)

7. Give name, address, phone, etc. of local contact there are questions.

8. Build up interest with advance news and background information.

9. NGOs : DO NOT – repeat – DO NOT use zoo education programmes as a platform to criticize the zoo.

KINDS OF MEDIA

Different types of media require different types of information Radio TV Newspapers Magazines

KINDS OF NEWS

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS - of general interest programmes and activities to which the public are invited

2. HARD NEWS - Something specific happens, i.e. a birth, a death, an aquisition

3. FEATURES - Articles background, profile (animal or human), general

Care for Bers Education Programme Pointers for specific media

NEWSPAPERS Press release of item · Can be longer than radio but not too long · If your press item is too long they will edit it; this can lead to BAD mistakes · Photos: inclusion of a good photo almost guarantees inclusion of a press item. · Rules of thumb for length: Hard news item - 1 page, double spacing Announcement: 1/2 page, d.s. Feature: 3-5 pages, d.s.

T.V. Should be visually interesting and SHORT · T.V. time is costly; each second is gold · T.V. is visual; must SHOW something

RADIO Should be short and snappy · Radio is audial so try and paint an audial picture of most important items; bring a vocal animal if possible · Seconds are a long time on the radio · Rules of thumb of radio speaking time 10 seconds = 25 words 20 seconds = 50 words 60 seconds = 150 words

Note for Bear Programmes : Please try and credit the ALERTIS – fund for bear and nature conservation, Netherlands for financial sponsorship of the bear materials. Zoo Outreach Organization would also like to be credited for creation of the materials, but ALERTIS comes first. And the zoo, if you are having your programme, should come even before that. And the species – Bears ! – should come before that !

Background on bears, if press persons want it, can come from the background in this booklet. The “general information” sheet is probably best for press.

If you don’t have photos of your programme, give them Xerox copies of the posters and also the programme logo of the four bear faces.

Care for Bers Education Programme

Resource material and Background information

Care for Bers Education Programme

Care for Bers Education Programme Resource Information on Bears for preparing lectures — from various sources

Bears in general · Bears belong to the family Ursidae · They originated 20-30 million years ago · Bears are the largest terrestrial carnivores, HRL (Head -rump length from nose to end of body) is 1-3m and tail length 7-12cm, weight 27-780 kg) · The body is powerfully built, with a broad long head, short, rounded ears and relatively small eyes. Their sense of smell is highly developed. The legs are very muscular, there are five equally long toes with sharp, arched, non-retractile claws. They have broad, almost flat crowns on the molars indicating an omnivorous diet which includes a great deal of plant matter. · The male and female look alike · They spend several hours foraging everyday. · They live in tropical jungles, chiefly forests. · Bears use day beds on the ground. These ground beds may be natural depressions eg. between roots of trees. · Longevity 25-30 years in the wild, usually less. · Most bears are solitary outside the breeding season. · Gestation period: 210-255 days. · Bear cubs remain with their mother for at least 1.5-2.5 years. · Their eyesight is very poor but their sense of smell is well-developed, · Nine species of Bears are recognised today, out of which four are found in India * Himalayan Brown Bear Ursus arctos * Himalayan Black Bear Ursus thibetanus Ursus thibetanus thibetanus - Indian subcontinent Ursus thibetanus laniger - Kashmir and Punjab * Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus - India * Sun Bear Helarctos malayanus All four species of Bears are listed in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) · At present there are 300 bears in captivity in Indian zoos (10 brown bears in 6 zoos, 174 black bears in 38 zoos and 116 sloth bears in 33 zoos).

The basic bear body is as follows: Large size: They are large-bodied animals Powerful limbs and strong claws: for climbing trees, digging and grubbing about while foraging Long muzzle: The long powerful muzzle with the mobile snout and protrusible lips are important features for digging and grubbing while foraging. They have an excellent sense of smell. Tail: Tail is vestigial.

Care for Bers Education Programme Bears in particular – the four species of Asian bears

Sun bear It is the smallest member of the bear family. It is primarily nocturnal and omnivorous. Identification feature - It has an orange heart- shaped mark on its chest. The soles of its feet are bare and the claws are highly developed to aid climbing. The fur is short and sleek but the skin is thickened to survive bee and wasp stings when raiding nests for grub and honey. It feeds manly on fruits, invertebrates and other animals. They do not have defined breeding. The gestation period is much shorter than other species (96-107 days)

Brown bear Brown bears can run at a top speed of approximately 50 km/hr. They travel distances of upto 1.5-4 km away in search of food. They do not climb trees and Collect food from the ground. They bear 2-3 young between December and mid-January. They feed typically on all kinds of plants, insects, snails and small rodents. Brown bears are used as “dancing bears” in Eastern European countries as sloth bears are in India and other parts of South Asia.

Black bear Black bears have almost naked soles on their feet, reflecting their ability to climb trees well. They live in forests and brush covers from Iran through the Himalayas to Japan. They have a characteristic cresent- or moon-shaped mark on their chest and a distinctive mane. They survive in winter by hibernating and dormancy can last from a few weeks to six months.

Sloth bear Sloth bears get their name from a mistaken shipment of animal parts which included mixed parts of a sloth bear from Sri Lanka and a South American three-toed sloth. Both have long, curved, ivory coloured claws ! It specialises in feeding on termites and ants. It has protrusible lips and a flap of skin at the top of its nose. The Sloth bear is the most specialised species of bear morphologically. Their main food during the dry season is insects, mainly termites, ants and beetles. At certain times, honey is an important food. They also climb trees to obtain fruit. Sloth bears are reported to have only one mate. Gestation period is 210 days. They live upto 30 years in captivity.

References: EEP Ursid husbandry guidelines (1998). Zoologischer Garten Koln Grzimek, H.C.B. (1972). Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia, Mammals III, Volume 12, Pp. 117-140, 657 pp. Macdonald, D. (1984). The Encyclopedia of Mammals: I, Pp. 96-98, 447pp. Sidensticker, J. (1999) Zoogoer. 28(2) 1999. Friends of the National Zoo, Washington, D.C. IUCN SSC Bear Action Plan : Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Care for Bers Education Programme Sun bear

Latin name: Helarctos malayanus. At roughly half the size of the North American black bear, the Sun bear is by far the smallest of the world’s eight species of bears. Like the Tibetan moon bear (Asiatic black bear), the Sun bear gets its name from a light crescent- shaped blaze of fur on its chest. The Sun bear is a nocturnal animal and spends much of its time high in the canopy of Asian forests. They are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plants and animals, and that allows for a very broad food supply. They eat fruits as well as ants and termites, birds, lizards and small mammals. They are fond of honey and will brave a thick swarm of stinging bees to get at the sweet stuff inside their nest. They also like to eat the hearts of oil palm tree, which kills the trees and often gets them in trouble with orchard owners.

Sun bear cubs are born extremely tiny and, weighing in at only about 300 grams, appear almost fetus-like. Coming typically in litters of two, the cubs are born completely blind with semi-translucent skin and no fur. But within just one month, they are able to go off with their mother to forage for food. Deforestation and poaching make the sun bear one of the most endangered species of bear on Earth.

Their home range spans the most heavily populated — and heavily forested — regions of Southeast Asia. With every stand of forest that’s lost, the sun bear has fewer places to hunt and live. And with forestry comes forestry roads, which are allowing poachers extremely easy access to the territory of sun bears. Their paws and body parts are highly prized ingredients in a few Asian restaurants, and that’s spurred major illegal trade. The sun bear can be found in India, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia and China. It’s now extinct in Bangladesh and there are deep concerns that this bear may soon disappear from several countries in the near future if conservation measures aren’t put in place.

Care for Bers Education Programme Asian Black Bear http://www.geobop.com/Mammals/Carnivora/Ursidae/Ursus_thibetanus/

Introduction Ursus thibetanus is the name scientists gave the Asian black bear. It is also called the Himalayan bear and moon bear, because of the white crescent on its chest.

Description The Asian black bear is usually black, but may be brownish. It has some white on the chin and a striking white crescent on its chest. The hair on the neck and shoulders forms a thick, long, mane-like ruff. The large ears are set far apart on a big, roundish head. Moon bear claws are short and strong. The moon bear is a medium-sized bear, averaging 55 to 65 inches long. Most animals weigh 200 to 255 pounds. Larger animals may weigh over 400 pounds. Moon bears are excellent tree climbers. The most bipedal of bears, they have been known to walk upright for over a quarter of a mile. This forest dweller is widely distributed in central and eastern Asia. In the west, it lives in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Its easternmost home is the islands of Japan and Taiwan (China). In the south, it can be found in Bangladesh and Laos, ranging north throughout Tibet.

Diet Like most bears, Asian black bears are omnivores, eating both plants and animals. They may forage for fallen acorns (their most important food in Japan) and are said to be able to kill a buffalo. Common foods include fruit, nuts, berries, insects, honey, and carrion (animals that are found dead). In India and Tibet, moon bears often kill sheep, goats, and cattle. Moon bears may also feed on farmers’ crops. The Japanese dislike the moon bear’s habit of peeling bark off trees to get at the tender sapwood. The American black bear has a similar habit. Enza are a sign of moon bear feeding in Japan. These large “bears’ nests” are formed as an animal sits in a high fork, bending branches back to reach fruit or nuts. Eventually, the broken branches come to resemble a nest.

Family life (including hibernation!) Little is known about moon bear reproduction. They seem to mate most often in spring, but have been reported to mate in autumn and even in December. Moon bears hibernate in areas of cold weather. In warmer areas, they may not hibernate at all, except for pregnant females. The female dens in a cave or hollow tree, where she will give birth. Two cubs are commonly born, tiny and blind, during winter or early spring. The cubs’ eyes open in about a week, and they soon begin to forage with their mother. They are weaned after about 3 ½ months. Cubs normally stay with their mothers for one or two years. But females have been seen with two sets of cubs. Adult Asian black bears are typically solitary.

Moon Bears and people Asian black bears seem to have problems wherever they live. Raids on crops and livestock bring retaliation. The moon bear is also said to have a nasty disposition and often attacks people. In India, Moon bear cubs are captured and trained to walk and ride bicycles in circuses. The demand for bear parts in Asian folk medicine threatens a number of bear species. But the Moon bear lives right in the heart of the market. Finally, loss of habitat takes a toll.

Care for Bers Education Programme Sloth Bears John Seidensticker

Sloth bears are not sloths. They are bears that live on the Indian subcontinent including the island of Sri Lanka. The various species of sloths live in South America. So why the name “sloth bear”?

Much 18th-century western knowledge about tropical animals came from the study of specimens sent by curious naturalists from distant ports-of-call to Europe’s great museums. Consider the wonder, and subsequent confusion, when a Mr. A. Seba opened a shipping crate, newly arrived in Europe by sailing ship from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by way of a landfall on the east coast of South America. This was the normal route in the 1700s for ships of the Dutch East India Company travelling from Asia to Europe around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

Mr. Seba was impressed with his new specimen’s long, curved, ivory-colored claws, similar to those possessed by sloths, so he called this a sloth from Ceylon when he described it in 1734. D.P. Erdbrinek, the taxonomist who ferreted out this story, believed Mr. Seba may have been victim of a seafarer’s prank because the “specimen” turned out to be “…the mutilated parts of an Aswail [sloth bear] from Ceylon together with parts of a [South American] three-toed sloth….” This error was not soon corrected and was even compounded when other early taxonomists, confused about the specimen’s origins, thought it was a creature from Africa.

The first valid scientific description, by George Shaw in 1791, called this strange creature Ursine Bradypus. Ursine means bear like, while Bradypus (literally, slow foot) is the genus name of three of the species of sloths. Shaw thought that the bear was a sloth, primarily based on the shared characteristic of lacking the two first upper incisors. Time, and additional specimens, eventually revealed the true taxonomic relationships, but the confusing common name remains the English tag for this mysterious bear.

What is the story with those long, curved, ivory-colored claws and missing upper incisors that, coupled with a shaggy black coat, nearly naked nose, and protrusible lips, so befuddled those early scientists? Our studies of wild sloth bears show that, unlike sloths, which eat leaves while hanging high in rainforest trees, sloth bears are specialized feeders on ants, termites, bees, and, seasonally, fruits. They use their long curved claws to carefully dig out and open ant and termite nests on the ground, then hurry to suck up the insects by sucking and blowing, a process that sounds like a jack-hammer and is made possible by those protrusible lips and missing incisors. These bears also use their claws to climb tall trees to reach bees’ nests, rich in honey and bee larvae. The nearly furless brown nose doesn’t get gummed-up with the defensive excretions of termite soldiers, while the long shaggy coat wards off insect attacks.

One endearing sloth bear trait is that the female carries her young cubs on her back. (This is a behavior characteristic of other ant-eating mammals such as the South American giant ant-eater.) They do so presumably because a female must cover long distances each night as she travels between the many ant and termite nests she must visit to obtain enough to sustain her and her young. (The average litter size is 1.5, equally divided between litters of one or two.) She can linger only so long at each nest, blowing and sucking in ants or termites, before the ant or termite soldiers amass and attack in sufficient numbers to make a longer stay unpleasant.

Care for Bers Education Programme

Sloth bears also live where other large dangerous carnivores live: tigers, leopards, and wild dogs on the subcontinent and leopards in Sri Lanka. These large carnivores readily kill sloth bears if they can catch them, and riding on the mother’s back seems a good way to keep cubs close during the nightly search for ant and termite nests.

I met an adult female sloth bear one day while radio tracking tigers from elephant back in Royal Chitwan National Park in the lowlands of Nepal. She was 30 feet up in a tall bombax tree, out on a limb, knocking pieces of a bees’ nest to the ground. Her cubs were below, eating the wax, honey, and larvae. She immediately saw and smelled us and “woffed” to her cubs, who rushed off into the 20-foot-tall grass beside the trail. Then she descended from the tree and charged the elephant, only veering off into the grass when my elephant man launched the elephant into a dead run straight at the bear. There were several lessons in this flash encounter, not the least of which was that an immediate offensive move is sometime the best defense. But why not have the cubs climb in response to a perceived threat? I have often seen American black bear females send their cubs up trees when they sensed a threat. The answer may be that sloth bear cubs and even females in a tree remain vulnerable to predators, especially to leopards, which readily climb.

The threat posed by these large carnivores may also explain another curious sloth bear habit. We know from our Zoo sloth bears that they can live quite well on a “typical” bear diet. Black and brown bears readily eat carrion of large ungulates such as deer and elk, especially in the spring when animals that died over the winter are exposed. However, wild sloth bears usually do not feed on carrion. In sloth bear country, a big dead deer usually belongs to a tiger or a leopard—an animal to be avoided.

We know little about the status of the sloth bear on its home ground. My colleague Andrew Laurie and I studied sloth bears in Chitwan National Park in the early 1970s. Fifteen years elapsed before Anup Joshi and his advisors David Garshelis and David Smith from the University of Minnesota took up the challenge of studying these bears, also in Chitwan. These investigators learned that sloth bears can adapt their diet to changing food availability. Termites were more dominant in their diet and fruits less so than they were 20 years before. In that time, most of the livestock had been removed from the park and as a result the park’s plant composition changed, with fruiting plants declining in number. The bears appeared to respond by eating more termites.

Half way around the world from my Nepal field site, I was at the National Zoo when a sloth bear cub was born here. The cub’s emergence from the den when it was about three months old was a cause for much celebration. At the Zoo I watched the mother teach her cub proper back-riding etiquette and listened to the short-range “chuffing” calls used between female and cub. The cub rode about on her mother’s back, hip, and shoulder. If the cub seemed off-center, its mother shook vigorously, occasionally flipping the cub all the way over her back; when the cub was too far forward, its mother elbowed it back. To get aboard, the cub stood on its hind legs, grasped the female’s long fur with its forepaws, and scrambled on.

The first sloth bears came to the Zoo in 1898; since then, 24 sloth bears have lived here for various amounts of time. Eleven litters of cubs have been born here, the last in 1994. In 1998, we acquired a female named Hana, born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1994, and here on a breeding loan from the Toledo Zoological Gardens. The Toledo Zoo imported her because there are only 40 sloth bears in the North American zoo breeding program.

Care for Bers Education Programme

Conservationists believe sloth bears are threatened by habitat loss and change. But until recently the only field studies have been in Chitwan. The rich, productive alluvial floodplain of the Rapti River, which flows through the Chitwan Valley, is not at all like most of the remaining sloth bear habitat. More than half of the forested wildlife habitat left on the Indian subcontinent is tropical dry forest, a highly seasonal habitat with low productivity compared to Chitwan. In October 1998, I visited this habitat in central India’s Panna National Park, where A. J. T. Johnsingh and K. Yoganand are now studying sloth bears. Johnsingh, who worked with me in 1981 as a FONZ-supported post-doctoral fellow, is head of the wildlife faculty at the Wildlife Institute of India. Yoganand is his graduate student.

Yoganand, Yogi to his friends, is studying the behavioral ecology of the sloth bear for his doctoral dissertation. By comparing feeding, ranging, and other behavior of sloth bears in this relatively poor, dry habitat with the bear’s behavior in the rich Chitwan site, he will be able to assess the limits of the bear’s adaptability in the face of the massive environment transformation that is going on through much of the forested areas of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Yogi’s studies are ongoing but he has learned that his bears are dependent on harvesting a very few species of driver ants, even though many more ant species live in Panna. The key to understanding sloth bears in this habitat lies first in understanding why they focus their foraging efforts on just a few ant species and then in understanding the ecology of driver ants. The factors that limit the distribution, size, and growth rates of ant colonies, and the frequency and extent to which the colonies can be harvested by sloth bears will also limit the distribution and density of sloth bears.

Before they are finished, these scientists plan to survey much of the remaining tropical dry forest, in conjunction with Indian Forest Department officers, to determine the sloth bear’s current distribution and assess the threats it faces. The situation is not promising. Most of India’s tropical dry forests are deteriorating from excessive cattle grazing and the extraction of fodder and other forest products by people. What is promising for sloth bears is that Indian and Nepali wildlife scientists are looking into their survival needs in detail. With this information, workable conservation plans for specific regions and habitat types can be crafted and implemented. I find this trend encouraging. The sloth bear and all the magnificent wildlife of the Indian subcontinent will benefit.

—John Seidensticker is Curator of Mammals at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park

ZooGoer 28(2) 1999. Copyright 1999 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.

Care for Bers Education Programme Brown Bear or Grizzly? http://www.nature-net.com/bears/brown.html “The Bear Den” ©, 1996, 1997 is a copyrighted creation of Don Middleton Both brown and grizzly bears are the same bear, Ursus arctos. There has been a tendency in North America to call the brown bear which lives in the interior, a grizzly, to distinguish it from the brown bears which live in coastal areas. The name “grizzly” comes from the silver tipped grizzled hairs that these brown bears develop as they get older.

Population and Distribution The brown bear has the most widespread distribution throughout the world of any of the eight bear species. They are found throughout most of the northern hemisphere including North America and Eurasia.

Their preferred habitat includes mountain forests, open meadows and large river valleys. Their range originally went from the northern arctic seacoasts, southward over the tundra-covered mountains of the north, throughout the boreal forests and as far south as Mexico on the North American continent and as far south as Spain, Italy and Iran in Eurasia. The southern limits of their range coincided with the end of travel corridors of preferred mountain forest habitat. There is also a population of brown bears on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

It is estimated that there are currently somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000 brown bears throughout the world. The coniferous forests of Eurasia (primarily located in the countries that comprised the former Soviet Union) are still believed to be a stronghold of the brown bear. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 brown bears still live in these areas. In Spain, France and Italy, it is believed that there are still small isolated brown bear populations numbering a hundred or less bears. In North America, the brown bear population has declined drastically. It is estimated that in the early 1800’s there were approximately 100,000 brown bears. Today, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 brown bears. They have been virtually eliminated from the lower forty-eight states of the U.S. with less than 1,000 bears occupying less than 1% of their original range. The remaining bears in North America are basically evenly distributed between the western provinces of Canada (particularly British Columbia Alberta, Yukon and the North West Territories) and Alaska.

Vital Statistics The brown bear is a large mammal whose size and weight are extremely variable depending on the availability of food, climatic conditions, etc. In general, adult brown bears stand approximately 100 centimeters (3 1/2 feet) tall when on all fours and have a approximate body length of just over 200 centimeters (6 1/2 to 7 feet). The weight of brown bears is highly variable, normally ranging anywhere from 150 to 375 kilograms (330 to 825 pounds). Males within a geographic area may weigh more than twice as much as females. As an indication of the variability among brown bears, male bears that have access to the coastal areas often weigh 500 kilograms (1100 pounds) with some individual animals weigh in excess of 680 kilograms (1500 pounds). This is twice as heavy as the largest American male black bears. The lifespan of brown bears in the wild can be 25 years or more.

Physical Characteristics Brown bears have a heavy stout body with strong muscular legs. They have a big head, short tail, small rounded ears, feet (i.e., both heel and toe make contact with the ground when walking in a manner similar to humans), and a hind foot with five toes. They are very

Care for Bers Education Programme quick such that they are able to attain speeds of 56 kilometers per hour (35 miles per hour) for a short distance.

Brown bears have a distinctive muscular shoulder hump and the claws on the front paws are large, strong and slightly curved. The front claws are approximately one and three- quarter times longer than the rear claws and generally visible even from a distance. The absolute length of the front claws are often 9 centimeters (3 inches) long with claws over 12 centimeters (4 3/4 inches) long not uncommon. Their claws are highly adapted to digging for food (e.g., tubers, rodents, etc.) as opposed to climbing. The most common colour of the claws is brown. Brown bears are covered with a heavy shaggy fur. There are many colour phases including black, cinnamon, red, blond or a mixture of these colours.

Diet and Food Sources Brown bears, like most wild creatures, seek foods which will return the highest nutritional value for the least expenditure of energy. Seasonal availability and geographic location are the biggest factors determining the primary food sources of brown bears. Eating more than 200 types of plants, it has been determined that more than 75% of a brown bear’s diet consists of vegetable matter including, berries, flowers, grasses and sedges, herbs, tubers, corms and roots, and nuts of all kinds. The importance of subsurface tubers, corms and roots to the brown bear’s diet is demonstrated by the specialized development of their claws and shoulder musculature for digging. For the remaining portion of their diet, animal matter such as decaying animal carcasses, fish, small marine animals, ants and other insects, honey, elk and moose calves and a variety of other small mammals (e.g., ground squirrels, marmots, etc.) are consumed.

Because of their large size, brown bears require a very high caloric intake of food. In order to achieve this, brown bears will eat 36 to 41 kilograms (80 to 90 pounds) of food per day during the summer to early fall peak feeding period if it is available to them. During this eating binge, brown bears are able to gain 1 1/4 to 2 3/4 kilograms (3 to 6 pounds) of fat each day.

Home Range A home range is the area an animal travels in its normal activities of gathering food, mating and caring for its young. The size of the home range of an individual brown bear will vary with the concentration of high energy food sources. Thus, the more concentrated the food sources, the smaller the range necessary to maintain the animal. The size of the home range is extremely dynamic and varies from one geographic region to another and also from one year to another.

In general, males have a home range which is four times to six times larger than females. The home range of a mature male bear will normally overlap the home range of at least two or three females and possibly many more. Characteristically, a home range does not constitute one large area but rather is composed of many food source areas connected by travel lanes. The home range must also include rest areas and more remote areas for shelter, protection and denning. Brown bears do not normally defend their home ranges from other bears and thus it is normal for the home ranges of individual bears to overlap each other.

Reproduction Female brown bears normally become sexually mature in their fifth year with some waiting even later for their first mating. Copulation normally takes place in a manner similar to members of the canine (dog) family. Mating normally occurs between late May and early July. Females will normally mate with a number of males over the approximate

Care for Bers Education Programme three weeks of the breeding season. Females will not come into estrus when they are nursing cubs.

Through a remarkable process referred to as delayed implantation, the fertilized ovum divides a few times and then floats free within the uterus for about six months with its development arrested. Sometime around the denning period, the embryo will attach itself to the uterine wall and after a period of eight weeks (January or February), the cubs will be born while the mother is still in hibernation. Delayed implantation clearly serves an important survival need for the mother. Should she not have enough fat reserves to carry her through the winter, the embryo will not implant and it is simply reabsorbed by her body.

The number of cubs born normally ranges from one to four with two to three cubs being average. As a rule, the number of cubs a female will have increases as she gets older. Again, climate and food supply are important determinants of the size of the litter. At birth, the cubs are blind, toothless, hairless and very tiny. They weigh 600 to 700 grams (21 to 25 ounces). This is roughly the size of a chipmunk. Virtually helpless, they are, however, able to move sufficiently to suckle on their mother who remains asleep. Her milk is calorically very rich containing over 20% fat. In contrast, human milk only contains about 4% fat. Within the next several weeks, the cubs will develop rapidly on this rich diet such that they will be able to follow their mother when she leaves the den.

Baby and Adolescent Mortality The survival of bear cubs is extremely tenuous. Up to 40% of brown bears cubs will die during their first year of life. Starvation, and disease will claim a number of cubs. Wolves, bobcats, eagles, mountain lions are also known to kill young cubs who become separated from their mother’s side.

Infanticide is also a factor. Predation of cubs by adult male brown bears is also quite common. Three reasons have been postulated to account for infanticide: to provide food; to create a breeding opportunity for a male bear; and to reduce competition for common territory. The cubs will normally stay with the mother for the first two and a half years. Occasionally, they will remain for an extra year. The cubs are generally weaned between July and September of their first year and stay with the mother through their first full two winters.

The survival of brown bear cubs is totally dependent on the skill of the mother in both protecting them and teaching them the basics of what to eat, where and how to get it, where to den, and how to cope with danger. As adolescents, the young bears are still in extreme danger. Normally they are driven off by their mother as she prepares to breed once more. They must now become rapidly self sufficient if they are to stay alive and find sufficient food to build up their fat reserves to last over the long winter. Occasionally, young bears will spend a period of time together after they have been driven off by their mothers.

Hibernation During late summer and early fall, all bears have, as a survival imperative, the need to gain as much weight as possible. Through the harvesting of available nut crops, fish, berries, etc., brown bears make very large weight gains. Such gains may be as much as 18 kilograms (40 pounds) per week. At such times, foraging may occur around the clock with only short rest periods. The arrival of cold weather and/or snow precipitates the bear undergoing a remarkable metabolic transformation as it prepares for hibernation. Hibernation is an

Care for Bers Education Programme energy-saving process bears have developed to allow them to survive long periods when there is insufficient food available to maintain their body mass. As they stop eating and become increasingly lethargic, the bear will enter a rock cave; dig out a den; hole up in a dense brush pile, hollow log or tree cavity. While hibernating, a bear’s heart rate drops from between forty to seventy beats per minute to only eight to twelve beats per minute and its metabolism slows down by half. Unlike many other animals who hibernate, its body temperature only undergoes a minor reduction of 3 to 7 degrees Centigrade.

During the entire period of hibernation, the brown bear will neither pass urea or solid fecal waste. While urea poisoning causing death would occur in all other animals within a week, bears have developed a unique process of recycling the urea into usable proteins. Most brown bears vacate their winter dens over a one to two month period during April or May. Both the climatic conditions (snow cover and temperature) and physiological factors such as the bear’s age, the status of its health and its remaining fat reserves affect the exact timing of emergence from its den. Normally, adult males emerge first. Females with newborn cubs are usually the last to leave their dens. During the hibernation period, all bears lose a great deal of weight. Adult males and adolescent bears lose between 15% and 30% of their weight while it is not uncommon for a female with newborn cubs to lose as much as 40% of her weight. The brown bear will be lethargic during its initial emergence from the den. It then resumes its normal foraging pattern as it completes the cycle of life.

Care for Bers Education Programme BEARS - Endangered Species From the web site: http://www.wildhearts.org

Written by Carol Wain (Education Co-ordinator) Introduction: What is a Bear? What Do Bears Eat? The BEAR is a much-loved mammal, as suggested by the fact that most British children have owned a teddy bear – or several teddies! In fact, bears can be fierce and dangerous to human beings if provoked, but they are “the least predatory of carnivores”, with the exception of the Polar Bear (R. Burton, 1982).

General Description Bears can run faster than they look capable of, producing speeds of up to 30 mph (48 kph). They can stand and sit upright, swim and climb trees. They use their forepaws as a weapon, or “hug” their victim to death. As their faces are quite expressionless, it is impossible to be sure how a bear is going to react (see Rowland-Entwhistle, 1981/86). The bear family (Ursidae) is closely related to those of dogs, weasels and racoons. What has been till recently overlooked is that bears, like tigers, elephants and other large land mammals, are under threat as a viable species throughout the world. There are several different kinds of bear – 7 or 8 (if we include the Panda, which some scientists argue belongs to the racoon family). The best known is the Brown or Grizzly Bear, including its larger variant, the Kodiak Bear, followed by the all-white Polar Bear.

What Do Bears Eat? Since bears live in very different regions – some cold, some tropical – their diet varies from one species to another. The Sun Bear is very different in habits from the Polar Bear. The Brown Bear lives in such a wide range of regions (all northerly), including Canadian mountains or forests and high plains in Russia, that its diet varies too: it eats roots, berries, bulbs and grasses, but is also a carnivore. Bears need huge amounts of food each day: up to 35 lb (16 kg); this makes bears fat, but they live off their stored fat in winter, when they stay dormant in their dens without eating. The Brown Bear will eat insects, fish (especially salmon) and small animals regularly, and sometimes larger animals such as moose or caribou. These bears also eat dead meat or carrion; many bears are scavengers, eating whatever they can find. Over 900 years ago, Brown Bears lived in Britain, in the Scottish Highlands, where salmon abound; some zoologists would like to reintroduce them in special reserves.

THE BROWN BEAR - Ursus arctos Bears live in wild, usually mountainous places where there is plenty of space. A few bear species inhabit warmer, tropical regions. The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), lives in northern USA and Canada, but is extensively found across Northern Asia and N.E. Europe (where it is somewhat smaller at 7 feet or nearly 2 m. long). Its larger, grizzled sub-species is known as the “Grizzly” (Ursus horribilis) in North West America. The Kodiak (Ursus middendorffii) is its largest sub-species (from 9 feet or 2.7 m. to 11 ft. or 3.4 m. long), found in islands off the Alaskan coast.

THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR - Euarctos americanus The American Black Bear (Euarctos americanus) lives in similar areas to the Brown Bear, but extends south into Mexico, preferring woodland areas: it is an omnivore, eating both plants and meat, but frequently raids people’s garbage bins and sometimes raids tents on camping sites. For this they are often shot. The famous, loveable American cartoon characters, Yogi Bear and Booboo, of “Jellystone National Park”, are based on the doings of Black Bears in Yellowstone National Park, North America’s oldest nature reserve. This

Care for Bers Education Programme bear is smaller (at 4 - 6 ft. or 1.2 - 1.8 m. long) than the Grizzly and less dangerous to people; males weigh up to 660 lb (300 kg) and females 100-265 lb (45 – 120 kg). Despite frequent hunting and culling, the Black Bear is common in many areas, but has died out in the Mid West and parts of Eastern USA. It is near extinction in Louisiana. It had died out in Arkansas before the 1950s, but more Black Bears were reintroduced from other parts of the USA in the 1950s, and they are now thriving in mountainous areas (Horton, 1996).

THE ASIATIC BLACK BEAR Selenarctos thibetanus Selenarctos thibetanus is the Latin name for the Himalayan form. The Asiatic Black Bear is medium sized, like its close relative, the American Black bear, but it has larger, rounder ears and a crescent shaped white mark on the chest. Adults are from 4 to 6 feet long (1.2 – 1.9 m.); males weigh up to 265 lb (120 kg) and females up to 155 lb (70 kg). This bear lives in the uplands and mountains of South Eastern Russia, Japan and South East Asia; mainly in forests, feeding on bamboo, fruit, insects and carrion. Like other Asian bears, it is in danger of extinction: people kill it both for food and medicine, and sometimes because it attacks livestock and damages crops. As more people move into its main habitats, this bear is being driven out; it can only survive if large areas of its terrain are set aside as protected national parks, and if controls on hunting are introduced.

THE SUN BEAR Helarctos melayanus The Sun Bear (also called the Honey or Malayan bear) is the smallest bear, weighing 60- 145 lb (27-65 kg) and up to 5 feet (1.5 m) in length,with females weighing 110lb (50 kg); its name comes from its golden chest patch in an otherwise black coat. The Sun Bear is one of the most endangered of all bear species, It lives in tropical Asian rainforests, mostly in southern China, where its long, curved claws help it to climb trees and catch termites and bees, and take honey from bees’ nests. It also eats small mammals, birds, fruit and tender plant shoots. This bear is threatened because the rainforests are being destroyed; also Asian people kill these bears for their gall bladders, which are used in Far Eastern traditional medicine. Sometimes this species is caught for captivity as pets, but when individuals grow too big, they are sold for meat or medicine. The overall number of Sun Bears is unknown, as they are difficult to count (Horton, 1996).

THE SLOTH BEAR - Melursus ursinus The Sloth Bear (once thought to be a “sloth”) is found throughout the Indian sub- continent, including Sri Lanka; it is becoming rare because its habitat - the dry forests of Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, are being turned into farmlands for people. The sloth bear’s coat is shaggy and black, with a white U or Y shaped patch on the chest. It is quite large: males are from 5 feet to 6 ft. 3 inches (1.5 – 1.9 m.) long, and weigh 175-310 lb (80-140 kg). Females, although the same length, are lighter, at 120-210 lb (55-95 kg). Sloth bears have long claws for tearing at logs in search of food, or tearing open termite nests - termites and other insects are its main diet. The tongue and lips form into a tube which sucks up the insects. Apart from the increased farming taking over its natural habitat, the use of sloth bears as dancing bears has served to reduce their numbers. However, they are protected in the Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal, and in nature reserves. As Casey Horton (1996) writes, it “needs more safe areas if it is to survive”.

THE GIANT PANDA - Ailuropoda melanoleuca Giant Pandas are very rare; they inhabit mountainous regions of central South West China. Most zoologists now agree that the Giant Panda is a bear, which is known for its distinctive black and white patched coat, and black eye patches, with “sticking-up” black ears. A few pandas exist in captivity, but it is difficult to get them to breed. They are

Care for Bers Education Programme very rare, found in only remoter parts of inland China, in bamboo forests high up on mountain slopes. Pandas feed on bamboo: stems, leaves and shoots. An adult panda needs to eat 30 lb (14 kg.) of bamboo per day; it has to spend 12 hours daily on feeding. Pandas have 6 “digits” on their front paws to help them to handle bamboo; one “digit” is actually an unusually formed wrist bone, which serves as a thumb. Over the years, people have moved into areas inhabited by the panda, and bamboo forests have been cut down, reducing its source of food; some pandas are also killed by poachers. By 1992-93 there were fewer than 1,000 pandas left outside captivity, and during the 1980s when much of China’s bamboo died out all at once, over 150 pandas starved to death (Pollock, 1993: Atlas of Endangered Species). Today, around 1,000 giant pandas live in the wild, plus about 100 more in zoos. Wild pandas now live in special reserves, protected by the Chinese Communist government. The Giant Panda’s plight has been recognised for some time now: it is the symbol of the World Wildlife fund. However, there is a real risk that it will become extinct.

THE SPECTACLED BEAR - Tremarctos ornatus The spectacled bear is South America’s only bear species. It is partial to fruit, and will climb up a prickly cactus to reach the fruit at the top. This bear’s markings are named after its pale fawn eye rings, which look like a mask or a pair of “specs”. It is black and of medium size: 5-6 feet long (1.5 to 1.8m). Males weigh up to 340lb (155 kg) and mature females 180 lb (82) kg. The spectacled bear lives in the “cloud forests” of the Andes in four countries of South America: Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. This bear is under threat, being hunted by indigenous (local) people, for meat and body parts (used as medicines), or shot when it raids farms for corn and livestock. Apart from being killed for its meat and body parts, other threats to the spectacled bear come from people increasingly moving into the high Andean mountain areas, clearing and destroying the bears habitat. Despite protection laws, their numbers are declining, but no one knows how many of these bears are left, partly because of difficulties in exploring the terrain. More reserves are needed to ensure this bear’s survival.

THE POLAR BEAR The Polar Bear, as its name suggests, lives in the Arctic (but not the South Pole); it is well adapted to living in these freezing, harsh conditions, living almost entirely on meat. Its numbers are now fairly healthy, as it has been protected since 1973. Along with the Kodiak (Brown) Bear, the Polar bear is one of the largest bears. Full-grown adults are 8-9 ft tall (2.4 to 2.7 m). Males are heavier, weighing from 770–1,430 lb (350–650 kg), but some weigh as much as 1,760 lb (88 kg). Females are lighter, at a maximum average of 550 lb (250 kg). This bear lives in the Arctic lands around the North Pole, and is well adapted to the conditions there: its thick white coat, consisting of hollow-haired fur, insulates it and helps to trap heat from the limited sun. It has a thick layer of blubbery fat beneath the skin, keeping it warm; the soles of its paws are covered with bumps and hollows that enable the bear to grip the ice more firmly. The polar bear eats large amounts of meat: seals, walruses, small whales and seabirds; in the Arctic summer, when a few plants appear, it adds grasses, berries and seaweed to its diet.

CONSERVATION CONCERNS Asian bear populations have been devastated by habitat loss and the demand for bear body parts, particularly the gallbladders. In search of a new supply, traders and poachers have now turned to the bears of Russia and North America and even the polar bear is under threat from this trade. The United Nations has outlawed the trade in species

Care for Bers Education Programme which are listed as endangered and imposed restrictions on others which are threatened under the terms of CITES, signed by over 140 nations. All Asiatic bears are listed on Appendix I of CITES, meaning they are given the highest protection. The North American black bear, the brown bear (except the Chinese brown bear) and the polar bear are listed on Appendix 2, which means that their trade must be regulated. Although the bear species look very different when alive, their gall bladders are sometimes very difficult to distinguish. This creates a problem for the customs officials trying to enforce CITES. It is called the ‘look-alike’ problem. So long as there is some trade in bear galls, the critically endangered species can be smuggled through.

The Trade in Bear Gall Gallbladders and bile alleged to come from bears is available in traditional medicine pharmacies around the globe, primarily within Asian communities and the Far East. Although it is mostly illegal, it is widespread and accepted. Research has shown that a component of bear’s gallbladder is a chemical, which has medicinal properties, called urso- deoxycholic acid UDCA. This has paved the way for the manufacture of synthetic alternatives, such as Anti-gall, which can be used instead of the traditional bear bile remedy. But practitioners have often rejected these alternatives because they believe that the real thing is better. Bear galls are used in China for everything from tonics to shampoos, cosmetics and herbal teas. Bear gall was listed as a medicinal product as early as 659 AD. It is used to treat infections, liver and heart disease, coughing, hypertension, ‘hot’ disorders such as fevers, burns, swellings and pain caused by fractures, strain and hemorrhoids. It is a powerful natural remedy. Recognising the decline in wild bear populations, the Chinese instigated the practice of bear farming, which involves the insertion of a metal tube into the gall bladder of a living bear, ‘milking’ the gall fluids for use in medicinal products. The bears are often kept in very small cages. Although they claim to be solving the problem the problem of pressure on wild bears, these farms require constant new additions of wild caught bears, because so many die from the appalling and traumatic conditions they suffer in the farm.

How much is Bear Gall Worth? Galls are valued according to their size and the quality of their bile which depends on colour and smell. The species is taken into account (only the Giant Panda has escaped the trade). Polar bear galls are considered second rate in Korea and virtually worthless elsewhere. The Asiatic black bear is valued the highest. One could be sold for 2-3 thousand US dollars in Korea. The poacher who killed the bear and cut out the gall might only receive $50 for it.

Bear Paws Bear paw soup is a favourite delicacy in Asian cuisine, It is said to have invigorating effects. It is considered one of the eight most precious delicacies in Chinese cuisine and will cost about $1000 per bowl in a Seoul restaurant. By 1999 several wildlife groups had drawn attention to the plight of the bear family. In the early 1990s an organisation called “Libearty” was set up, focusing on bears; this was later subsumed under the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which is currently campaigning against Japanese “Bear Parks”.

Bears in Europe The Guardian newspaper carried a report in July 1999 on new research by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, 1999), emphasising concern that the bear family risks extinction in parts of the world. It states that bears inhabit 62 countries world wide; the Brown Bear, living in 38 States of North America, is in “dramatic decline” there, and is down to

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“six tiny populations” in Western Europe. France had 300 bears at the end of World War I, but only 8 are left in the Pyrenean Mountains. Brown Bears in Italy are also very rare, but more common in Russia and Romania where they have been protected and encouraged. Even the Polar Bear is now “in trouble” because of global warming reducing the ice pack, and pollution which enters its body fat and affects its ability to breed (see Guardian, July 27 1999). More attention is being given to the use of bear parts in Far Eastern medicine, and the continuing cruel practice in Asia and Eastern Europe of exhibiting dancing bears for profit. In Britain the practice of bear baiting was banned by the nineteenth century; it is commemorated in the names of some public houses: ‘The Bear Inn’, ‘The White Bear’, and similar. Bear “wrestling” still goes on in Turkey and other areas of the Middle East.

References and Sources on Bears: Banks. Martin (1989) The Polar Bear on the Ice. (In Oxford Scientific Films ÒAnimal HabitatsÓ series. K.S. 2-3+. Quite detailed.) Belitha Press. Barrett, Norman S. (1988) Bears. (8 species covered: K.S. 2-3) Franklin Watts, London, New York. Schlein, Miriam (1990) Pandas. In ÒJane GoodallÕs Animal WorldÓ Series. (Compares pandas with bears and racoons: K.S. 2-3) Collins, London; Athenaeum, USA.. Baker, Lucy (1990) Polar Bears. (One species only. for Key Stages 2-3) Puffin Books, London, New York. Fair, Jeff (1991) Black Bears. (One species only. K.S. 2-3) Gareth Stevens, Milwaukee, USA. Burton, Robert (1982, Ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Animal Kingdom. (Comprehensive guide for all ages: Chap. on “Mammals” by R. Burton; see also “Habitats” by John A. Burton) Hamlyn, London for W.H. Smith. Few, Roger (1993) Endangered Species Encyclopaedia for Children. (Includes Giant Panda, Spectacled Bear: K.S. 2-3) Gollancz, London. Guardian newspaper (1999) “Outlook for Bears is Bleak” In National News section, page 2. (Report of publication of World Wide Fund for Nature/ WWF Report, referenced below.) Writer: Paul Brown. Date: 27 July. *Horton, Casey (1996) Bears. In “Endangered!” Series (Illustrated: several species of Bear, with useful addresses and references, for Key Stages: 2-3). Benchmark Books, for Marshall Cavendish, New York, USA. Robinson, Claire (1997) Bears. In “Really Wild” Series. (Focus on Brown Bear, for younger children: K.S: 1-2) Heinemann, Oxford, England, and world-wide distributors: Pollock, Steve (1993) Atlas of Endangered Species. (Includes Polar Bear, Giant Panda and brief ref. to Grizzly: K.S. 2-3) Belitha Press, London. Stirling, Ian (1993) Bears. (K.S. 1-3?) Sierra Club Books for Children, San Francisco. Rowland-Entwhistle, Theodore (1981/86) Factbook of Animals. (Handbook of most animal species: see sections on Bear; K.S. 3-4) Grisewood & Dempsey Ltd. (copyright). Publ. by Galley Books for W.H. Smith & Son Ltd., Leicester, England. The Global Underground Trade in Bear Parts (1996 Report by the Investigative Network and the Humane Society of the United States) by Peter Knights. * World Wide Fund for Nature (1999) Bears in the Wild. (Report on current conservation status of all bear species throughout the world: Adults/K.S. 4). Published by WWF, Panda House, Weyside Park, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1XR, England. * These sources especially recommended: covering all species of bear and the giant panda, and are up to date. (* However, R. Burton, 1982, notes disagreement on this, and Rowland-Entwhistle, 1981, classifies the Giant Panda as part of the Racoon family or procyonidae.)

Care for Bers Education Programme Bears in Indian Zoological Gardens -- From the Central Zoo Authority Database 2000

Himalayan black bear, Ursus thibetanus (Cuvier,1823) Category State Name of Zoo City M F U T Small Mizoram Aizawl Zoo Aizawl 2 0 0 2 Large West Bengal Alipore Zoological Garden Calcutta 1 2 0 3 Large Tamil Nadu Arignar Anna Zoological Park Vandalur 1 2 0 3 Large Assam Assam State Zoo Guwahati 2 5 0 7 Small Jharkhand Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park Ranchi 2 1 0 3 Medium MP Gandhi Zoological Park Gwalior 1 2 0 3 Small HP Himalayan Nature Park Kufri 2 2 0 4 Mini Sikkim Himalayan Zoological Park Gangtok 1 1 0 2 Large AP Indira Gandhi Zoological Park Visakapatnam 2 1 0 3 Medium Ar. P Itanagar Zoological Park Itanagar 4 5 0 9 Medium Rajasthan Jaipur Zoo Jaipur 0 2 0 2 Medium Bihar Jawaharlal Nehru Biol Park Bokaro 2 3 0 5 Small MP Kamla Nehru Prani Sanghrahalay Indore 3 3 0 6 Large Gujarat Kamla Nehru Zoological Garden Ahemadabad 2 1 0 3 Large UP Kanpur Zoological Park Kanpur 1 2 0 3 Small Meghalaya Lady Hydari Park, Animal Land Shillong 1 2 0 3 Large Punjab Mahendra Chaudhury Zool Park Chhat bir 9 9 0 7 Medium MP Maitri Baagh Zoo Bhilai 1 1 0 2 Medium Manipur Manipur Zoological Garden Imphal 5 4 0 9 Large Orissa Nandankanan Biological Park Bhubaneswar 3 2 0 5 Large Delhi National Zoological Park Mathura road 1 5 0 6 Large AP Nehru Zoological Park Hyderabad 2 4 0 6 Small West Bengal PN Himalayan Zoological Park Darjeeling 3 1 0 4 Large UP Prince Of Wales Zool Gardens Lucknow 2 3 4 9 Small Uttaranchal P.T.G.B.P. High Altitude Zoo Nainital 1 1 0 2 Small Gujarat Rajkot Municipal Corp Zoo Rajkot 1 1 0 2 Small Haryana Rohtak Zoo Rohtak 2 2 0 4 Large Gujarat Sakkarbaug Zoo Junagarh 1 1 0 2 Large Bihar Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park Patna 3 6 0 9 Medium Tripura Sepahijala Zoological Park Sepahijala 2 4 0 6 Large Karnataka Mysore Zoo Mysore 5 2 0 7 Small Kerala State Museum & Zoo Thrissur 1 0 0 1 Medium Kerala Thiruvananthapuram Zoo Thiruvanantha 1 1 0 2 Small Rajasthan Udaipur Zoo Udaipur 2 3 0 5 Medium Tamil Nadu V.O.C. Park Mini Zoo Coimbatore 1 0 0 1 Large UP Lucknow Prani Udayan Lucknow 3 5 0 8 Medium Karnataka Bannerghata Natl. Park Bannerghata 1 1 0 2 Small Nagaland Kohima, Zoological Park Kohima 4 3 0 7 Large Maharashtra VJB Udyan Byculla (east) 2 2 0 4 Total 83 95 4 181

Himalayan brown bear, Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 Category State Name of Zoo City M F U T Large Assam Assam State Zoo Guwahati 1 0 0 1 Small HP Himalayan Nature Park Kufri 1 2 0 3

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Medium Rajasthan Jaipur Zoo Jaipur 1 1 0 2 Large Punjab Chhatbir zoo Chhatbir 2 2 0 4 Total 5 5 0 10

White Sloth Bear Category State Name of Zoo City M F U T Medium MP Van Vihar National Park Bhopal 0 1 0 1

Sloth bear, Melursus ursinus (Shaw) Category State Name of Zoo City M F U T Large West Bengal Alipore Zoological Garden Calcutta 1 1 1 3 Large Tamil Nadu Arignar Anna Zoological Park Vandalur 1 3 0 4 Large Assam Assam State Zoo & Bot Garden Guwahati 1 0 0 1 Small Karnataka Bellary Childrens Park-Cum-Zoo Bellary 1 1 0 2 Small Bihar Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park Ranchi 4 1 0 5 Small Rajasthan Bikaner Zoo Bikaner 1 1 0 2 Small Goa Bondla Zoo Usgao 1 1 0 2 Medium Tamil Nadu Children’s Corner Guindy 0 1 0 1 Large AP Indira Gandhi Zoological Park Visakhapatna 5 6 2 13 Medium Rajasthan Jaipur Zoo Jaipur 1 1 0 2 Large UP Kanpur Zoological Park Kanpur 1 1 0 2 Small Maharashtra Maharajbag Zoo Nagpur 2 1 0 3 Large Orissa Nandankanan Biological Park Bhubaneswar 4 4 0 8 Medium Karnataka Bannerghatta NP Zool. Garden Bangalore 10 7 0 17 Large Delhi National Zoological Park Delhi 4 4 0 8 Large AP Nehru Zoological Park Hyderabad 8 1 0 9 Large Gujarat Sakkarbaug Zoo Junagarh 3 2 0 5 Large Bihar Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park Patna 1 0 0 1 Large Karnataka Mysore Zoo Mysore 3 1 0 4 Small AP Tirupati Zoo Tirupati 3 2 0 5 Small Kerala State Museum & Zoo Thrissur 1 0 0 1 Small Bihar Tata Steel Zoological Park Jamshedpur 1 2 0 3 Medium Kerala Thiruvananthapuram Zoo Trivandram 1 1 0 2 Medium Karnataka Tiger & Lion Safari Shimoga 1 3 0 4 Large UP Lucknow Prani Udayan Lucknow 0 2 0 2 Small Maharashtra Peshwe Zoological Park Pune 1 0 0 1 Medium MP Van Vihar National Park Bhopal 3 3 0 6 Total 63 50 3 116

Malayan sun bear, Helarctos malayanus (Raffles) Category State Name of Zoo City M F U T Large Karnataka Mysore Zoo Mysore 0 1 0 1 Medium Manipur Manipur Zoological Garden Imphal 1 0 0 1 Total 1 1 0 2

Care for Bers Education Programme

Activities and Games with bear theme

Care for Bers Education Programme

Care for Bers Education Programme

Activity 1

How many bears can fill a t-shirt

Materials required: One XXL t-shirt to be sacrificed (provided in your bear teaching kit)

Number of participants: As many as want can try to participate

Time limit: 10 – 15 minutes

Age: 4-7 years

It has been said that an Ambassador car will hold 30 people during a political rally! The object of this exercise is to see how many youngsters can fit into an XXL bear t-shirt (especially provided in your kit).

This exercise has to be carefully monitored so that no youngster is hurt or suffocated. Start with two youngsters and place the t-shirt over their heads with two heads in the collar. Then fill the t-shirt with youngsters, one by one. Probably more can get their head into the collar depending on the age of the students. When the collar fills up and starts to split, you can use the arms … probably two students can occupy each arm.

If you are really into this and it has not become dangerous, you can take blunt scizzors and cut a few holes in the t-shirt in strategic places so that other heads can come out and participants can breathe.

Be sure and record the number of youngsters that finally got in the t-shirt. Send a photograph. We will release this information nationally to the press. Locally, this will make a wonderful photo op.

Caution: be VERY sure that no youngster is getting too much squeezed, trampled or suffocated or your photo op will turn into a photo-scandal.

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Activity 2

Survival of the fittest

Materials required: Masks Number of Students: As many as you want Time limit: 30 minutes Age:6-12 years

• Draw a big circle on the ground with a chalk, depending on the strength of the students. (All the students must be able to run inside the circle)

• Divide it into eight parts and number them 1-8 clearly.

• Make the students stand in a big circle, wearing their masks.

• The person who conducts the programme will stand facing away from the students and start clapping. (If you can play music, it will be better)

• The students start to run within the circle and keep running till the clapping stops.

• Then the conductor says a number between 1-8, including 1 and 8.

• The children within the number announced come out of the game.

• The game goes on this way till there is only one student left.

• This student is the winner.

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Activity 3

Passing the Story

Materials required: Nil

Number of students: A group of 25 - 30

Time limit: At your discretion

Age: 6-12 years

• Select a set of students. • Ask them to sit in a circle. • Give them the skeleton / essence of a story with a Bear theme. You can use some of the resource material provided in this guidelines for background or select one of the story starter examples below. • The background should include a few facts … how a bear from the forest becomes a dancing bear or how deforestation has affected the status of bears etc. • Start the story for them with something like “Once upon a time deep in the forest there lived two sloth bears”. • The children can use their imagination and make the story go any way they like. Encourage them to be creative. • If they have trouble you can give them a plot (this has been added to the story examples given below) • Ask a student to start the story. The child should tell one or two sentences only and then pass it on to the one sitting next to him. Each child adds his or her own angle to the story and completes it. It doesn’t matter if they stick to it – what matters is that they try to use the information you gave and also just to think about bears and their problems. • For an amusing climax, try and note down what the kids say and then read the “story” to them all at once time after they are finished.

Example stories to start the game :

Example 1 : Dancing bears. “Dancing bear” shows are common in India. Many people observe and enjoy mendicants who own the bears, laughing at their antics and asking questions about their lives with their “pet” bears.

These people may not know that the cubs are cruelly taken away by killing the mother when they are young by poachers who kill the mother in order to get the cubs. They do not grow up in the woods where they are meant to live. They are trained using cruel methods and pulled around by a chain or string which is passed through a ring that pierces the nose. Sometimes the bears look

Care for Bers Education Programme undernourished and for sure they don’t get the nutritious grubs and ants they get in the forest. They are made to walk on the hot pavement which burns their soft feet.

Estimates of the number of sloth bears kept for performing are more than 1000. This number, considering the way the bears are procured, affects their survival as a species. In India sloth bears are used for road shows while in Eastern Europe it is brown bears. Ask kids to make up a story about dancing bears.

Example 2 : Poaching and trade Bears live happily in the forest eating termites, beetles and berries and snuffling around. Bad people come and kill these happy bears. They use the bear’s gall bladder for medicine. They also sell their paws which are used in elaborate dishes. Make up a story in which a bear is killed and the forest department catches his killer and puts him in jail. In jail, he sees a Discovery programme on T.V. about the bear trade and feels sorry. Ask kids to make up a story about what he does to change his ways.

Story 3 Loss of forest; loss of bear homes Human activity such as building lots of house, constructing shopping centers, opening recreation sites like golf courses and resorts causes loss of forest. This means animals like bears don’t have a home. If they come close to human villages, drawn by the smell of food, or if they raid refuse heaps, they might get poisoned or shot by frightened villagers.

Ask the kids to tell a story about what happens to bears that lose their forest.

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Activity 4

Find your Rakhi partner

Materials required: Rakhis and Masks

Number of students: However many

Time limit: 10 minutes

Age: 10-12 years

Ask participants to wear the masks. They should hold the rakhi’s provided in their packet up so that it can be seen.

Ask them to find a partner whose rakhi matches their mask

Conduct a rakhi-tying Ceremony with these partners with each tying the rakhi on the other and pledging to “Care for Bears” as they care for their human brothers and sisters (or better, maybe!)

Whoever conducts this exercise should make up a suitable short speech about caring for one another and caring for the wildlife in our world … particularly bears.

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Activity 5

Just a line

Materials required: Bear masks

Number of students: As many as you want

Time limit: One minute per student

Age: 10-14 years

• Hand out bear packets to students

• Ask them to take out their Itty-bitty Bear Book and the bear mask

• Separate them into four teams based on the masks, namely Sun bear team, Sloth bear team, Brown bear team and Black bear team.

• Ask students to wear the mask they got in their bags

• Let the teams go one by one

• Ask members of the first team to state just one fact – “just a line” — about the species of bear represented by them using their booklets as reference. If they run out of facts from the book, you can suggest that they could just say anything (true) from their own feelings (I like Sun bears) or even ask a question (do Sun bears like the Sun?) or make a rhyme (Sun bears are fun) about their type of bear.

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Activity 6

Complete the bear

Materials required: Black board or large paper sheets, Chalk or pens, Watch with seconds hand

Number of students: As many as you want

Time limit: 5 minutes to study the picture, 5 minutes to draw

Age: 10-15 years

• All those who want can participate • Divide the participants into bear groups according to their masks – Sloth bear group, Sun bear group, Black bear group, Brown bear group (if there is a large number of participants you can even make two groups per bear type) • Draw a circle for each type of bear face on the black board or paper sheets and put the name underneath – Sloth, Sun, Black, Brown • The object of the game is for the groups to draw the face of the bear represented by them look as much like the bear named, using their masks and the pictures on the bag as guides. • Call out parts of the bear one by one (as suggested below) and a student from each group should run and draw that part on his group’s bear face. Give 30 seconds per part. Nose! Right ear! Left ear! Right eye! Left eye! Mouth! Chin! Hair! Colourface!

• For large groups of students, paper can be used and the exercise can be repeated as many times as needed for each student to draw or you can have 8 or more teams with bear faces repeated. If there are still a few students left over, let them be judges and select the First, second and third best drawing. Give the winners a hand

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Activity 7

Complete the bear in his habitat

Materials required: Black board chart paper, Chalk or pen, Pictures of the four bear faces, Watch with minute hand

Number of students: 4 Teams

Time limit: 3 minutes per team

Age:10-15 years

Objective: To draw a bear in his habitat

• Divide students into four teams • Let one team draw the face of the bear – one student to draw and others (only on their team) should shout instructions. • The next team draws the body (one student to draw … etc.) • The next team draws plants and trees (as above) • And last team draws hills, rocks (as above)

This exercise could be followed by a story in quick time with each member of each team contributing a sentence about the component in their team assignment, again giving 3 minutes per team, e.g. the “face team” just tells things about the face, the “body team” tells about the body, etc.

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Activity 8

Blind bears

Materials required: Black board or chart paper, Chalk, Cloth to cover the eyes, Bear bags, Watch with minute hand

Number of students: As many as you want

Time limit: 5 minutes to study picture & 10 mins to draw

Age: 10-15 years

• All those who want can participate • Divide the participants in to as many groups or teams as you want • Draw circles on the black board or on chart paper – one circle per team • Participants volunteer to come one by one to the black board for their team • Blindfold the volunteer and ask him to draw any part of the bear – team members can instruct him • Next volunteer steps up and draws • Continue till all have contributed to the picture or until time is up.

Have a judging committee made up of (a) anyone you want, or (b) participants who didn’t get to draw and ask them to select the best of the worst!

This activity can be modified depending on the age of the participants. For very young children any bear type will suffice; for older kids you could assign different bear types to the groups or teams.

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Activity 9

Bear race

Race 1 — Build a B E A R

Materials required: Small flat stones (should be able to write on them.), Large open area Number of students: As many as you want Time limit: As long as it takes

Race 1 instructions : • Take the participants to an open ground and let them form teams of four each • Ask them to collect four stones for each team. • Name the stones B, E, A and R. • Draw a “race course” on the ground as shown above • Divide it into however many teams you have • Also divide it into three rows • Ask the participants to place their four stones on Row 3 as shown in the figure above. • Get team members to stand in a line in front of the first row as shown above • Give a signal for the race to start. • The first racer from each team runs and pick up B stone in the third row, then runs back, touches the next runner with it and places it in the first row. • The next runner in the team picks up stones E, A and R one by one and comes back. • The team that makes the first complete B E A R in Row 1 wins the game.

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Race 2:

Save the bears

Groups of bears are being held by evil poachers who will sell them as dancing bears or kill them for their gall bladder or paws for the medicine and food industry. In this game, participants have a chance to rescue these groups of bears.

Materials required: Large open space Number of students: As many can be accommodated Time limit: As per your wish

Instructions for Save the Bears

The race track should be drawn the same way as that of bear race. In this game, there is no need for stones. Instead, other participants serve as the stones. A number of “racers” should be selected and other participants divided equally so that every evil poacher has the same number.

The groups of bears should stand in each track of Row 3

The racers (these are the Wildlife Officers and Conservationists) stand in Row 1 and – at a signal from the referee – run down the track to Row 3 and catch the hand of a bear and run with him back to the start. He has saved a bear. He then rushes back and catches the hand of the next bear and so on until he has saved all the bears. The first racer to save all his bears gets a Conservation Award.

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Activity 10

Essay Writing

Materials required: Slides, slide projector or pictures / posters, paper and pen depending on the number of students

Number of students: Any number

Time limit: 30 minutes

Age: 13-17 years

Show the students a slide or a poster of a Dancing bear (or use any of the A4 pictures with captions provided in this kit if you don’t have a slide or poster).

You can give them some background material depending on their need. There is some information on dancing bears in this guide and even in the bear packets.

Then ask them to write an essay / story in about 100 words on any of the pictures.

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Activity 11

Rangoli bears

Materials required: Rangoli materials e.g., colours, rangoli powder, Flat surface suitable for rangoli drawing

Number of students: As many as you want divided into as many teams as manageable.

Time limit: 60 minutes or as you wish

Age: 13-17 years

• Select as many students as you want according to their interest and divide them into “manageable” teams. Possibly each team could have at least one member who knows something about rangoli drawing

• Ask each team to draw rangoli bears – they can draw according to their age and level. Older students could be given team assignments for the different types of bears – they can draw habitat components or decorative designs as per their wish

Provide judges, if possible, and select the best rangoli pictures

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Activity 12

Drawing and story

Materials required: A4 size paper, and painting materials e.g., drawing pencil, eraser, crayons or colour pencils

Number of students: As many as you want

Time limit: 30 – 60 minutes for drawing, 30 minutes for making a story

• Hand out the bear packet to each student

• Tell students about various bear and their habitat and their food habits etc. encourage them to refer the Itty Bitty-Bear Book

• Write different themes on a slip of paper and put the slips in a hat or basket. You can repeat themes but try to make sure that there is a variety so that every other student will do a completely different drawing.

• After all students have completed their drawing, hang the drawings on the wall and try to make an illustrated story from the collected drawings. This is not very easy but it will be fun. Students should be able to move drawings around to formulate a story and then put captions on the pictures to tell the story. Later, the drawings and captions can be assembled in a book and given to some very small children.

Some themes are:

The Bear as I imagine it Bear in a cave Man eating bear claw soup

My favorite bear Sloth bear raiding an anthill Bears in comics Dancing Bears Black bear on a hill Bears courting Bear in its habitat Bears running from men Sun bear in a tree Bear eating berries Men running from bears A teddy bear Bear raiding garbage heap Bears in a circus Bear skin rug Mother bear with baby bear Bears in a zoo Bear skin coat Bear tracks in the forest Bears of the future Bear skin hat Man buying medicine made Bears being rescued by the Goldilocks and the from bear gall wildlife department three bears

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Activity 13

Memory Game

Materials required: Paper, board and pencil

Number of students: As many as you want.

Time limit: 5 minutes talk, 10 minutes to observe and 5 minutes to write

Age: 6-17 years

• This game can be conducted with as many students as you want.

• Take all the children to the bear exhibit tell them certain facts about the bear, for e.g. what it eats, its life span, the number of babies it produces a year, etc.

• Then allow them to stand and observe the bear for ten minutes.

• After that take them to a place where they cannot see the bear

• Make them write down every thing they noticed in the exhibit about the bear. e.g. Its hair colour, its claws, its height, the colour of its eyes, the ‘V’ on its chest if any and also the bear facts that were told to them at the beginning of the game.

If you have more than one bear exhibit you could repeat the process with the next bear too, and have them compare the differences for themselves.

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Activity 14

Dancing animals

Materials required: Rakhis and masks, Newspapers, music (optional)

Number of students: 30 or any even number

Time limit: 10 minutes

Age: 13-17 years

Rules of the game: The piece of newspaper (one double sheet of standard large newspaper) represents the forests and the students or participants are bears.

Throughout the game the partners should stand on the paper — whoever comes out of the paper is out of the game.

While folding the paper they can stand on the ground.

Game instructions; • Make the students wear the masks and rakhis from their packet. • Ask them to match their masks with another student’s rakhi and form pairs of “bears” • Give each pair one sheet of a newspaper • Get them to spread the full newspaper (double sheet) on the floor and stand on it • Start the music or if there is no music system you can substitute clapping (if there is an odd student, he or she can join you in clapping) • As long as you clap or play the music, the partners (pairs of bears) must dance – ON the newspaper • The moment the music/clapping stops the partners must fold the newspaper once and stand on it again • Again the music starts and the bears start dancing on the folded paper • If any one of the pair steps outside of the paper while dancing, that pair is out of the game • Each time the music or clapping is stopped the newspaper is folded once again.

Thus the game continues till one pair of bears is left on a small piece of folded newspaper.

Play music or clap until they too step out of the paper – it won’t take long and will be very funny to watch.

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Bear Activity for older kids (high school and college): Debate ! The article overleaf from News & World Report addresses very emotionally charged and controversial issues. Photocopy the article or make it available so that each person in your target group has one. Everyone in the target group should read the article. Ask for volunteers for debate, or have a system of random selection that the group members suggest and fix a debating team of 4 persons “for” radical solutions to bear use and trade and 4 persons “against”.

The following issues can be debated (and you can add your own.)

1. Should Americans supply bear parts to Asia from legally hunted bears in USA parks where they are plentiful (and also a nuisance in some localities)?

2. Is bear “farming” a solution to the need for bear gall in Asian medicine?

3. Is killing animals for any reason justifiable?

Care for Bers Education Programme Asia wants bears. America has spares proposing a swap to save threatened species

Care for Bers Education Programme

Care for Bers Education Programme