Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre has demonstrated that sun bears can thrive in group housing settings that mimic forest conditions and allow natural social behavior to emerge.
The BSBCC model demonstrates that sun bear welfare in captivity can approach wild behavioral expression when enclosure complexity is sufficiently high and social management is appropriately flexible. The traditional zoo approach of housing sun bears in small, sterile enclosures with minimal social contact produced the stereotypic behavior and apparent psychological distress that led many to assume sun bears were unusually difficult to house well. The BSBCC experience shows this assumption was wrong — the problem was the environment, not the species. Forest enclosures that allow bears to choose their social proximity, forage naturally, and express the full range of arboreal and terrestrial behavior produce bears that behaviorally resemble their wild counterparts far more closely. This model is influencing zoo design globally.