Sun bears are highly intelligent, active foragers that require complex, stimulating environments and careful management in zoo settings to maintain positive welfare.
Sun bear welfare requires constant cognitive and physical engagement. Their natural foraging involves hours of intensive searching, digging, and manipulation of tree bark, termite mounds, and beehives. Zoos that provide complexity-rich naturalistic exhibits with food buried, hidden in logs, and frozen in enrichment feeders achieve far better welfare outcomes than those relying on simple enclosures. Sun bears at facilities like the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre demonstrate that species-appropriate environments allow genuine behavioral recovery even in previously stressed animals.