A New Habitat for Sloth Bears
by Lucy Spelman
The Smithsonian National Zoo’s sloth bears, Hana, Francois, and Merlin, live in one of our oldest exhibits, built 100 years ago in the late 1890s. Since then, it has been patched and prettified, but is still fundamentally the same old structure. It’s more than time for a change.
One of my primary goals for the next ten years at the Zoo is to improve the quality of life of our animals that are living in antiquated facilities. A new habitat for sloth bears is a first priority, and design is well underway. The planned sloth bear exhibit will be set prominently at the Connecticut Avenue entrance to the Zoo, giving these star-quality bears the audience they deserve. Our goal in this exhibit is to create an environment in which sloth bears can be sloth bears: always busy, foraging for fruit, digging for insects, huffing and puffing with their long snouts, climbing trees, carrying cubs piggyback. When people can see these bears at their best, I suspect they will rival our giant pandas in popularity.
But I envision more than building a wonderful habitat for sloth bears. I plan for each of our new major exhibits to be well–designed physical places at the Zoo, for the animals and our visitors, as well as the focus of much broader conservation programs. The species on display will serve as anchors for Zoo-based programs, including research and education in Washington and around the world. Our giant panda conservation program is the model for this concept. This program includes building a beautiful panda-pleasing habitat, based on data collected by our scientists, who began studying these animals in the 1970s. It also includes research on the needs of our pandas with applications for improving the lives and reproductive success of all pandas in zoos and breeding centers; research on giant pandas in these zoos and centers; research and support for the conservation of giant pandas in the wild; and training programs to develop and enhance the expertise of Chinese conservation biologists and leaders. This is a tall order, but one I am determined to fill for giant pandas and sloth bears as well as for Asian elephants and other of our endangered species.
K. Yoganand, the author of “A Sloth Bear Saga,” is a young wildlife biologist from India who has come to the National Zoo to write his dissertation on the ecology and behavior of sloth bears in India’s Panna National Park. His arrival marks the beginning of our expanded effort to celebrate and study the sloth bear. Here, Yoganand will profit from the advice and experience of our staff scientists, enjoy enhanced library resources, and be exposed to Washington’s dynamic conservation community. And we will profit from his deep understanding of sloth bears as we plan our new exhibit, and learn how we can best contribute to sloth bear conservation in the wild.
My vision for the future is a dynamic, modern zoo offering the best conditions and care for animals, providing the best learning and fun experiences for visitors to enhance the human-animal bond, and contributing what is most needed to conservation in the wild through our science and training. We’re off and running.
Lucy
H. Spelman was director of the National Zoo from 2000 to 2004.
ZooGoer 30(6) 2001. Copyright 2001 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.
