An Investigative Report - Polar Bears in Mexican Zoos

Z oocheck Inc.788½ O’Connor DriveT oronto, OntarioC anada, M4B 2S6zoocheck@zoocheck.comw ww.zoocheck.comPage2

I ntroductionThisreport isa follow up to previous examinationso f Yupi, a f emale polar bear residing att he M orelia Zoo (Zoologico D e Morelia, Benito Juarez) in Morelia, Mexico. This review alsoi ncludes informationabout other polar bears in Mexico, gleaned from visits to the variousf acilities that house these iconic animals.A ll of the polar bears observed during this review were housed in antiquated, barren,a rtificial concrete/gunite exhibits. All appeared to suffer from the heat, a problemexacerbated by the lack of shaded rest areas and/or other areas in which the bears couldobtain relief f rom the heat (the sole exception wasthe Leon exhibit which had a substantials haded area). None of enclosures providedsoft substrate areas as comfortable rest stations,forthermoregulation or as behavioural enrichment.The Morelia Zoo was thee xception,h aving just provided a s and pit a rea forYupi,their resident polar bear.Most of the bearsobservedseemedto be distressedt o some degreeor were showing behavioural indicators ofproblems,such as stereotypies and/ orlethargy.The welfare status of off-exhibit bears, sucha s the m ale polar bear at the Chapultepec zoo k ept, was not determined.I t is clear that the conditions experienced by polar bears in Mexican zoos are poor and thatt hings have to change. Zoocheck recommends that the following four steps be taken:1 . The physical health of each bear should be assessed by qualified independentv eterinary experts, working with existing zoo veterinary and care staff, and anappropriate care program delivered. Bears requiring pain management should be apriority and if the pain cannot be mitigated, then humane euthanasia should bec onsidered.2 . H eat relief strategies should be employed as quickly as possible to reduce heat stressand to increase each bear’s comfort level. Measures could include, but are notlimited to, overhead shade cloth, cool natural substrate areas, allowing access ton ight quarters, air conditioning,fans for air circulation, water misters, refrigeratedp ools, etc.3 . Each zoo should instigate an independent expert husbandry assessment thate xamines all aspects of p olar bear management, c are a nd welfare that would servea s a basis for additional improvements(such as a program of environmentalenrichment)to mitigate some of the issues facing the animals. The results of thosea ssessments and t he recommendations that stem from them should be followed.4 . Each zoo shouldseriously evaluate the feasibilityof relocating their polar bear(s) tomoreappropriate accommodation elsewhere. T his is recommended because thezoosdonot have sufficientspaceo r financesto provide suitable accommodation for polarb ears and there is little that can be done to fully mitigatethe detrimental effectsthatw arm climates have on the animals.Page3

M orelia Zoo,MichoacanY upi was an orphanedcub from Alaska. Reportedlyhe r motherw askilledb y a hunterands he ended up in an Alaskan zoo. Numerousfacilities wanted Yupi,buttheMoreliaZ oo waschosent o receive her. S he is nowm ore than 20yearsold ( t here is some debateregardingh er actual age)and in J une it will be a pproximately t wenty years sinces he arriveda t theM orelia Zoo.Observations:I first observed Yupi in 2009, when Zoocheckasked me to visit the zoo todeterminewhether Yupi’s environment and living conditions had improved in the 3 . 5 yearssinceZoocheck’s first visit i n 2005.Yupi’sfur was a much darker green colour this time, f ar from the light greenc olorobservedi n 2009.Yupialso appeared to have l ost weightand her belly flesh was “hanging”. The zoo’sv eterinarian said Yupil ost weightbecause she just finished her heat season and duringt his time she refused to eat.A small s andp ithadbeen in stalled a few days previously. Apparently, the s and w as mixedwith clay to keep it humid and at a cool temperature. According to the zoo director, Yupiw as a bit anxious and unsure about it at the beginning, so she approachedit with caution.Theday after i t was installed Yupit ouchedthesand andinsubsequent days started to digi n it.S ome triangulara wningsmadeof textile, had been erectedoverthes andpita reato provides hade. U nfortunately, the awnings cover only a small portion of the enclosure.Zoo staffPage4

emainsunclear. C urrently,streams of water are spouting from various locations into thep ool. Zoostaff stated that theyintend to build a real waterfalltoprovideadditionalcooli ng.Thesandpitand new awnings. N ote the watert he pool at several locations.spouting intoYupidiggingin thesandp it.Page6

Yupiin heat ofMorelia( 32 degrees C / 70% humidity)Y upipulling barrel out of the pool.Page7

Y upi l ies on concrete substrate at the hottest point of the day.Information kiosk aboutYupi andp o lar bearsc reated by the former zoo director.Page8

A banner stating that Yupi has lived a ll her life at the Morelia zoo“ t erritory,” t hat she feels safe and that Morelia is proud to have her.whereshehasherNight quartersY upiin night quarters.I was show n thei nterior night quarters, whichremained unchanged from previous visits.T he zoodirectorindicated theyhave plans toinstallplexiglassw indows or skylightsin theceilingt o allow natural light into this area. However,at the present time, it remains dim,Page9

arren and lacksf urnishings or materials to make it more comfortable. T here weresomec hicken p arts and bread carefully s orted out on the floor.A bout Morelia: M orelia is the capitol of the state of Michoacan de Ocampo. Morelia has anarea of 78 km ² and a population of 597,511 inhabitants according to the results of the ThirteenthCensus of Population and Housing Census 2010. Morelia is located at 1951 meters above the seal evel and h as a template climate with medium humidity.Page10

L eon,Guanajuato ZooS hiber isa lonefemale polarbear, age and origin not determined. I n previous years, a maleb ear w as housed with her, but he p assed away many years ago.O bservations: At10:03am,Shiber was already displayinga stereotypic behaviour,pacingb ack and forth in the shallow water. She walked 12 steps to the right, turned around andw alked 12 stepsback to the left, before turning ar ound and repeating the pattern.Duringtheobservation period, she took threes mall breaks of 10- 20 secondseach, with the pacingbehaviourterminating a t 12:01 pm.A t 12:02 Shiber exited the water and moved to the door of her interior quarters. She movedtwos teps toward the gate,r emained there for2 - 10 seconds, then backed off and walkedt oward herpool, t aking10s teps(7 in the shaded area, 3 in the unshaded area) beforeturningand repeatingt he patterna ll overa gain.At12:43 pm., she was allowed i nside,atwhich point a staff member entered her enclosureto wash t he floorw ith a hose.At 1:05 pm.she was back out, returned to the shallow water and resumed stereotyping. My observationp eriod was terminated at 1.47 pm. She was still pacing.Page11

I returned the next day for several hoursb ehaviours as t he day before.and she wasr epeatingthe same abnormalShiberexpressingabnormalbehaviours1 ) Int he water2 ) W alking back and forth to night quarter entrance.Page12

E xhibitTheexhibitarea consists of a concrete/ gunite floor area and walls, molded to resemble“ natural” rock a nd painted in white.Thearea is approximately30ml ong.An overhang att he back of the exhibit provided a shaded area, and contained the access gate(s) tonightq uarters (kept shut).Metalbarsat visitor viewing stationsallowp eople to throw rubbishintothep ool.Iobservedcandy wrap pers and other paper debris floating on the water surface.Page13

E xhibit v iewed from the visitors tation.S hiber a t the gate to her night quarters.A bout Leon: A ltitude1800ma boves ea level. The 2010 census reported that the City ofL eon had 1,720,733 residents. Leon has a subtropical climate with summer rainfall. Thetemperaturein Leon reached 34 degrees C duringthe first day of my visita nd 37 degrees Co n the second day.Page14

G uadalajara,JaliscoAgataisoneof two polarbears at the GuadalajaraZoo in Jalisco.She came to the zooapproximately14- 15years ago. I was informed that another older malep olar bear(nameunknown)hasbeen at the zoof or even longer. Reportedly a f emale b ear was brought in toma te with him, but the malekilled the female. Not too long afterward,they brought asecondy oung female( Agata), but apparently the male attacked hert oo.The zoo has keptthemseparated s ince that time.Thestaff informedm e that the male is about 30 years old and thath e isn’t allowed intothee xhibition area v ery o ften.However, I was given two somewhat contradictory accounts ofhissituation. On the one hand I was told that themale stayspermanently in the off-exhibitarea,becausehe only wants to sleep and he ism ostlyinactive, while another personi nformed me that the bears are rotated on a day in/ day out basis. On the twod aysof myv isit, only the female was on display. S he was relatively a ctive.Obser vations: When I arrived,I observed Agatasleepingforapproximately1 hour.Theu nderwater viewing windows were quite dirty which m ade it difficult to view her, but Ic ould see that she was sleeping in an unshaded area with the temperature registering37degreesC. A little later she got up, so to get a better observation point I moved to thee levated viewing station, but the w indowst here were also dirty making viewing difficult .Page15

Agatae nteredherpooland was playing with a b lueplastic barrel, dragging it out of thewaterand then throwing it in again. I saw her diveinto the pool several times. Nostereotypicb ehaviourswere observed, but during thehottest hours(39 degrees C),shea ppeared anxious to enter her night quarters, walking t o t he accessgate several times.E xhibitT heview through the glass.Page16

Agata’sna rrow pool appeared to be approximately 10m long and about 2md eep.Herexhibitionarea issomewhat horseshoe-shaped and consists of concrete/gunite substratea nd walls. There are some small shaded a reas, but nowhere for her to retreat from publicv iew. The entire area is about 30m long by 15m w ide.AsI was getting readyt o leave, I noticed Agataplayingwith a plastic Cokebot tle.Since It hought it may be a hazard if shewere tochewi t apartand s wallow a piece,I located zoostaffand asked them to remove it. It took 45 minutes (and 5 complaints) before they lockedAgatainto h er night quarters and t hen removed what was was left of the plastic bottle.According to zoo e mployees, thed elayw as due to keeper staff being on their lunch break.Agatawithp lastic bottle.A bout Guadalajara: G uadalajara hasa population of 1,564,514,making it Mexico'ssecond most pop ulous municipality, witha h umid subtropical climatefeaturing dry, mildwinters and warm, wet summers. Guadalajara's climate is influenced by its high altitude1,566 m (5,138 ft. ) and the temperature is warm all year-r ound. The heat and heavyp ollution of the metropolitan area make it difficult to breath at timesPage17

a ppeared to be in pain. Several visitors were heard commenting on her sad condition ands everal said she looked like she was going to die.T he bear, prodded by a keeper,struggledt owalk t oward the visitor v iewing area.Page21

T hebear moved very slowly.A fter the viewing window, the keeper took the bearb ack and allowed her into her night quarters.Page22

A bout Mexico City: M exico City is the Capital of the Mexican Republic and has ane stimated 8.8 million inhabitants. It is located at2 ,240m abovesea level and the climate ist emperate to humid cold.Page23

R ecord of polar bears in MexicoAccordingto SEMARNAT( The Ministry of Environmentand Natural Resources)i nf ormation, t here are (or were) 8 polar bears in Mexico.It seems that there are not anyproperdocuments that prove the “legal origin” of 7 of theseb ears because they enteredM exico prior to t he MexicanG eneral Wildlife Law being implemented in2000.R e gistros,autorizaciones, permisos, marcas y certificados de legal procedencia y/on acimiento de ejemplares de Ursus maritimus ( Oso polar)NUMERODEM ARCAJEM icrochip000635072FG rapaZ ool Chap001Microchip020*623*587Microchip021*292*344Microchip00001473ª0S EXO O RIGENDOCUMENTO QUEA CREDITANOMBRE DELZOOLÓGICOQUE LOA LBERGAParque ZoológicB enito JuarezH embra I mportaciónD esconocidooM acho I mportaciónD esconocidoDirecciónGeneral deZoológicos yVida Silvestre( Chapultepec)H embra I mportaciónD esconocidoDirecciónGeneral deZoológicos yV ida Silvestre( Chapultepec)H embra I mportaciónD esconocidoDirecciónGeneral deZoológicos yV ida Silvestre( Chapultepec)H embra I mportaciónD esconocidoParque Zoológicod e LeonN o disponible m achoD esconocidoD esconocidoParque Zoológicod e LeonN o disponible M achoImport aciónCERTIFICADO DEORIGEN defecha29/02/99(pedimentoaduanalZoológico deG uadalajaraNÚMERODER EGISTRODFYFS/ZOO-E-0026-99-M ICH.DGVS-ZOO-E-0007-98-D . F.DGVS-ZOO-E-0007-98-D . F.DGVS-ZOO-E-0007-98-D . F.INE/CITES/DGVS-ZOO-E-0014-97-G TO.INE/CITES/DGVS-ZOO-E-0014-97-G TO.DFYFS-ZOO-E-0030-99/JALPage24

Page5268471disponibleoN aembrH nmportacióI oesconocidD edZoológicouadalajaraGFYFSD -OOZ-E-0300 - L9/JA93aretherelistthistoccordingA p oZoChapultepecin thebearslaroofTwoCity.in Mexicomicrochippedhem aret.unknown.isbearstheoftwoofstatuscurrenttheowever,HinformationheTtheAllMexico.inbearspolarfemale5aretherethathowssbearsolarpIsofemale,werebservedofrombearfemaleathatpossibleIt’sfor.unaccountedisbearoneGuadalajaratosentonethewasZoohapultepecCthenwasandpurposesbreedingforbear.maleresidentthebyilledkaGuadalajarofmalethenlyOnOrigiofCertifcateaashnd tanamaleehLeonoffemaleddahITES permits.CaretherethatindicateslistheT3bears:polaralem .CityLeon and Mexicouadalajara,G eWnow thatktthaandawaypassedLeoninmalehetemalnothera dah diedoagyearsanymZooMoreliatafoecausebagarbonsumingceg. eonishereTrbeapolaralemaGuadalajarnimalesecondaapparentelyndaMniixe .Cityoc 1201anI erticlarHorroofZooThentitledettp://www.scribd.com/doc/56620056/RevistaHabitath -3 fomadeisentionmehtpolarmaleatearbahCoZoultepecp .13,n pageO rpolaun osocontienen abarroteslosun calabozoespero“ epuednoqueinmensounTienestirar.e lepisainstintosuEncaminata.unasimulaotroelconamputado,brazovesrticoáElreja.contratopesdedaseytarimaunagolpearasca,vehementeperotigial,diámetro.decentímetros30deúlceraunaporlaceradoestáodoc onquetratamiento,suEnAshígado.elhan petrificadolequeanestésicos,dedosis180recibidohauración,cqueríaloíestán exhibición alNodirectora.a exl neyacen enfermosqueanimalesmuchoscomopúblico,Chapultepec”dezoológicodelergástulasaslranslation:TandcagesmallanIcan’tthatbearpolarhugeaistherebarsehindbevenThisout.tretchs30ulceranbylaceratediselbowTheleg.amputatedanhasbearpolarwideentimeterscndaareceivedashecurdoesn’tthatreatmenttofimhofdoses180whichnalgesics,aotherandbearThisbear.theofliverthepetrifiedavehsnimalanotaretxhibite .publictheoalsoarticleheTentionsmnbehihatteeypublicthediscellarssmallnianwithdeerathewithwallabies,blind5escape,totryingdoorthetobodyitsslamminglegamputateddraggedarethatorbitstheofoutyeseutohtwhereareaanottheunderbitatwistcaneyun,sotherndaoforrorshthewhichforcrueltynimalaormerfneverwasdirectoranctioned.sethesllAerayeportedlroctheofwillhetZChapultepecformertroversialnooirectdoBastien whElena HoyoMariaroieuthanasad a nohrule.anotherA sstatearticle0112 cChapultepethehattZ oo s’theofmanythatproblem ismajor(oldtooaretherenimalsameghasizinphetemalefapandthebear,olarp s sgorilla,andrango - )tansu: 3ttp://www.razon.com.mx/spip.php?article7987h

C onclusionsA ll of the polar bears observed during this review were housed in antiquated, barren,artificial concrete/gunite exhibits. All appeared to suffer from the heat, a problemexacerbatedby thelack of shaded rest areas and/or other areas in whichthe bears couldo btain relief (the sole exception was the Leon exhibit which had a substantial shaded area).None of enclosures provided soft substrate areas as comfortable rest stations, forthermoregulation or as behavioural enrichment. The Morelia Zoo was the exception, havingj ust provided a modest s and pit areaforYupi,their resident polar bear.Most of the bearsseemedto be experiencingsome level of distresso r were showing behavioural indicatorsofproblems,such as stereotypies and/ orlethargy.The welfare status of the off-exhibit bears,such as the malepolar bear at the Chapultepecz oo, was not determined.I t is clear that the conditions experienced by polar bears in Mexican zoos are poorand thatt hings have to change. Zoocheck recommends that the following four steps be taken:1 . The physical health of each bear should be assessed by qualified independentv eterinary experts, working with existing zoo veterinary and care staff, and ana ppropriatecare program delivered. Bears requiring pain management should be apriority and if the pain cannot be mitigated, then humane euthanasia should bec onsidered.2 . H eat relief strategies should be employed as quickly as possible to reduce heat stressand to increase each bear’s comfort level. Measures could include, but are notlimited to, overhead shade cloth, cool natural substrate areas, allowing access tonight quarters, air conditioning, fans for air circulation, water misters, refrigeratedp ools, etc.3 . Each zoo should instigate an independent expert husbandry assessment thatexamines all aspects of polar bear management, care and welfare that would serveas a basis for additional improvements (such as a program of environmentale nrichment) to mitigatesome of the issues facing the animals. The results of thosea ssessments and the recommendations that stem from them should be followed.4 . Each zoo should seriously evaluate the feasibility of relocating their polar bear(s) tom ore appropriate accommodation elsewhere. This is recommended because the zoosdo not have sufficient space or finances to provide suitable accommodation for polarbears and there is little that can be done to fully mitigate the detrimental effectst hat warm climates have on polar bears.Page26