Bears have wide-ranging, cognitively demanding lifestyles that create significant welfare challenges in zoo settings.
Bear welfare in zoos has improved substantially over the past two decades as stereotypic pacing in older exhibit designs prompted redesign of modern facilities. Contemporary best-practice bear exhibits incorporate stream features, varied substrates, denning structures, and extensive foraging enrichment that substantially reduce stereotypy rates and increase behavioral complexity. The persistent challenges are in space — even large naturalistic exhibits cannot provide the territory breadth that wild bears use — and in accommodating hibernation physiology for ursids that naturally undergo torpor. Facilities that monitor welfare outcomes and adapt exhibits based on behavioral data demonstrate that continuous improvement is achievable even within the constraints of captive settings.