Sun Bear Enrichment
Posted at 2:41 pm June 18, 2009 by Suzanne Hall
It has been a while since I updated you on the progress of Palu and Pagi, our sweet sun bear cubs (see post, Sun Bears: Adieu to the Den). Now nearly eight months old, the cubs can be seen taking the exhibit by storm each afternoon, climbing high, getting dirty in the mulch, and splashing about in their water features. They are very active at this age, and it is hard to believe they were so recently blind, immobile creatures in the birthing den.
Having twins has proven to be easy on Marcella, once she got past those initial intense weeks following their birth. Now, the busy bear cubs play and play and play…with each other. They leave their mother be much of the time. Marcella gets to eat and rest in peace. This is a very different scenario than with her previous, singleton cubs. I recall Danum, her firstborn, aggressively forcing play bouts on his mother by grabbing her scruff and shaking hard. Marcella might not have been in the mood to play, and she would try to retreat, but Danum would follow wherever she went and impose himself on her. Although her second cub, Bulan, was more gentle with Marcella, the twins are even easier as they self-entertain. They are each other’s best enrichment!
The other day, nature provided another type of enrichment for our captivating cubs. Before being pulled off exhibit that morning, an entire clutch of flightless ducklings wandered into the sun bear exhibit, and the mother duck followed. This might have ended badly for those ducklings. Fortunately for them, the sun bears were very occupied: Marcella was at the door, awaiting her morning pull-off so she could enjoy a hearty breakfast; her cubs were rolling about, pell-mell, engaged in a vigorous bout of social play. Nearly 20 minutes passed before any of them even noticed any of the ducklings. But eventually, Pagi found one.
The ducklings nearest the bears must have recognized the danger, because they had tucked down and were still. Pagi was sniffing about and encountered a duckling tucked under a log. She gave it a bat with her paw and sent the duckling rolling downhill. But the duckling recovered and froze again. What happened next surprised me. Pagi seemed a bit afraid of the duckling! She stopped, stared at it a moment, then turned and ran off. Eventually, she became distracted by something else that interested her, and she forgot all about the duckling. Palu and Marcella never even found the birds, and the keepers soon removed the bears from the exhibit. When I left the area, staff were awaiting the arrival of a bird keeper to assist in moving the ducks from the bear area. At the end of the day, all the birds made it out just fine.
Pagi will surely get over her momentary fright, but she and her brother will continue to play and entertain each other and our guests for many more months to come. Come see our special bear cubs before they are all grown up!
Suzanne Hall is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.
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June 18th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
these bear cubs sound like they are quite the energetic pair! at least they can raise a commotion with each other and leave poor mom alone. like you say, they entertain each other and can get rid of all that excess energy by playing, wrestling, running, jumping, and biting each other! sometimes two is easier than one once you get past the hardest part! they are sooo inquisitive at this age about anything and everthing that moves! funny about the ducklings and a little scarey at times I bet to see if they were going to survive the wrath of these two little cubs!! snakes, bugs, and turtles also can amuse baby bears, lion cubs, tiger cubs, and other nosey babies!! funny to watch! thanks for the up-date. it was most enjoyable to read and imagine what it must be like to be around these amusing twins!
June 18th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Is that the same family of ducks that has been entertaining Zhen Zhen from her perch in the trees?
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 am
The twins are adorable!! And I’m glad Marcella gets to have a bit of a break this time around. Thanks for another great update! And thanks for the work you do for all the bears!