Sun Bear Essentials
Posted at 1:34 pm November 1, 2006 by Suzanne HallToday the Bornean sun bear cub is 38 days old (see Suzanne’s blog, A Rare Sun Bear is Born). All is well in the bear den, and the dam Marcella is taking very good care of her offspring. This time around, however, she is showing us signs that she is a seasoned mother.
Marcella is leaving the den more frequently than she did with her first cub, Danum. She is prone to bringing this cub with her when she leaves the den during the day, rather than leaving it behind. She seems more relaxed about the cub’s bouts of crying this time around: while Danum’s cries seemed to elicit a frantic burst of attempts to calm and sooth, this cub is forced to wait while its mother calmly finishes her snacks or drink before she comforts it. It seems to me that Marcella is behaving as a human mother does with her second or third child. She knows that she needs to take care of herself as well as her infant, and the cub will be fine even if it has to wait a few minutes for her attention.
We can make these comparisons, and better understand sun bear maternal behavior, because Marcella is participating in our multi-bear mother-infant studies. One of the major research projects of the Giant Panda Conservation Unit is to study maternal care in several species of bear. This will help us to better understand this important aspect of the lives of bears, and should yield critical information important to the facilitation of captive breeding programs for many bear species.
We have studied many pandas, both in San Diego and Wolong, and Marcella is the first Bornean sun bear dam in our study. However, we cannot rely only on those animals we have within our facilities for our research. In order to increase our sample size and study species not currently held by the San Diego Zoo, we are collaborating with other institutions throughout the world to expand the reach of the project. The Little Rock Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, and National Zoo all have sloth bears and will be contributing to the study. A facility in Sepilok, Borneo may also add another sun bear to our numbers. Other species such as spectacled bears, brown bears, and American black bears will also be represented by other facilities.
In the end we hope our research on bear maternal care will help to facilitate captive rearing of conservation-dependant species. In the case of the sun bear, the least studied of the bears and the one most likely to go extinct, these studies also provide valuable insights into this animal as a whole. This tiny cub will be a window into the life history of its species, and may contribute to the future survival of its kind.
Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES.
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November 1st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
i just read a wonderful update on the Atlanta cub, I really didn’t know of all the people and other Zoos who lent their expertise to ensure that a cub would be born. To everyone involved in this effort a Giant thank you, i now have a better understanding of what it really takes to save these wonderful, beautiful and intelligent animals and to all of you, you are amazing and talented people. again Thank you.
November 1st, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Suzanne, Thanks for the update and the education on Marcella, her cub, and your studies on maternal bear behaviour. We look forward to more updates as the cub grows and eventually starts climbing trees.
It is interesting to learn about the characteristics about various bear species. For example, that sun bears climb trees and build their nests up high, sloth bears carry their young on their backs until they are old enough to move about on their own, panda cubs are born so very small and undeveloped and 90% of their development occurs after birth. Each has its unique characteristics and beauty to add to our total earthwide environment.
Thanks to all the caring professionals who take care of, study, and find ways to conserve the animals and their world.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:00 am
Suzanne, thanks for the update on the little Sun bear. The Fort Worth Zoo has Sun Bears but I’m not sure if they are Malayan or from Borneo (are these the same species?)…They are really cute ” little” bears and have a great personality and curious, too. They will come close to the visiters and ” pose” for photos. I hope they will bear young soon.
Is it possible to set up a webcam for the Sun bears at SDZ? I enjoy the Panda cam everyday and also check in on the Polar cam, too. I would love to see Marcella and her new baby as well…
Thanks for the update on these really cute ” little” bears!
Editor’s note: Malayan sun bears Helarctos malayanus malayanus and Bornean sun bears Helarctos malayanus euryspilus are the same species but different subspecies.
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:42 am
Margaret #2,
I too find it amazing and endearing to see sloth bear cubs hitching a ride on their mother’s back. That’s a pretty unique behavior in the bear world. With Marcella, I have found that sun bears use a unique position to hold their tiny cubs: the foot rest. She literally sets her cub across the top of her back feet, and then bends over and curls her whole body around the cub for warmth. Pandas and black bears don’t do this. These types of distinctions between bear species are some of the many things our study will elucidate.
And though sun bears may choose to rest high in trees as adults, when a female has a cub she usually chooses a hollow log or digs out a den under a tree to secure her cubs in. Makes sense… little ones would fall from a height before they could walk!
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I’m just curious…
Has the staff found out if Marcella’s new cub is a boy or a girl?
November 3rd, 2006 at 7:11 am
Colette #5,
So far, no one has gotten their hands on this cub. However, one keeper thinks she got a good peek at the appropriate parts to lead us to suspect we might have a girl. We’ll let you know for sure as soon as we do.
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 am
Thanks Suzanne,
Another interesting thing to see is how the mothers pick up their cubs to position them or reposition themselves before nursing or napping. I noticed that as her cub gets older, Lun Lun has changed the position of her jaws in picking up her cub. It appeared that she was using the scruff of the cub’s neck or whole body, early on. Lately she seems to get the cub’s head/skull in her jaws and move her around. How does Marcella move the cub to her back feet to rest them on top of them? If they are small all their lives, I would guess that she would continue to use the same type of motion to move the cub. They instinctively know to curl up for warmth, and kind of wrap themselves around the cub like a thick blanket. As you say, such movements would be difficult and very dangerous in the treetops. I find it interesting that mother bears, to my knowledge, don’t climb the trees with their young, except perhaps Sun Bears when the cubs are old enough. Moms tend to stay on the ground and let the cubs climb up by themselves. I wonder if part of that is to break their fall as they learn to get up there by themselves.