Response from the Detroit Zoo

I am not going to dwell on why Mark got a response and I didn't. He used my letter and just changed a few words to personalize it to him. I am satisfied with the response, tho it is still a sad situation.

Mark:

Thank you for your email and for sharing your concern for the animals at the Detroit Zoo. I appreciate that you’ve asked about the bear you witnessed pacing, and apologize for the delay in getting back to you.

Several of the bears at the Detroit Zoo (including one of the black bears and the Syrian brown bear who lives with the black bears) have been rescued from private owners or other captive conditions that were inadequate and which, unfortunately, caused them to develop some coping behaviors, like pacing. Once they develop these behaviors they will often exhibit them periodically throughout their lives, for reasons we can’t always perceive. The Detroit Zoo’s bear habitats were built in the late 1920’s and were originally constructed of concrete. We have added natural substrate, grasses, shrubs and trees to make them more complex and appropriate environments for bears. The Zoo’s environmental enrichment program is one of the most progressive and active programs in any zoo and the bears are a priority because of the stereotypical behaviors that some of the bears demonstrate. We have an aggressive and proactive enrichment program for the bears, which includes providing them with food they must forage to find (as they would in nature) toys and other objects they can manipulate and investigate and rotation of the groups of bears among the different habitats. Bears are intelligent animals adapted to live in large complex environments, and allowing them to move among the habitats on a random (not set) schedule allows them to experience a larger “home range”. All of these things will probably not keep the bears who have developed coping behaviors in their former facilities/conditions from falling back into them at times, but we constantly monitor the bears’ activities and conditions and modify the enrichment plans to respond and adapt to the bears’ conditions.

Environmental enrichment cannot take the place of a habitat with the space and complexity these intelligent animals need, which is why plans are in place to create expansive new habitats for bears as part of the master plans for the Detroit Zoo and Belle Isle Nature Zoo. The master plan for the Belle Isle Nature Zoo includes a new, much larger habitat for black bears. Our master plans are progressive and quite ambitious, and obviously can’t be implemented all at one time due to both costs and the logistical ability to renovate everything at one time. In the meantime we are focused on making sure that the animals living here get the absolute best care possible and live in habitats that are dynamic and enriched.

Thanks, again, for your email and your concern for animals,

Scott