What North American black bears require for good welfare in zoo settings and how their generalist ecology creates specific management challenges.
Black bear welfare in captivity hinges on cognitive and foraging enrichment that engages their exceptional problem-solving abilities and olfactory foraging ecology. Black bears in bare exhibits with simple food provision develop stereotypies rapidly because their intelligent, curious nature is entirely unstimulated. Welfare-appropriate management provides multiple daily foraging opportunities using varied food items hidden, buried or embedded in logs and substrate, alongside climbing structures, water features for wading and the thermal diversity that allows appropriate seasonal torpor responses. These are intelligent, complex animals that need complex, challenging environments.