Bears in captivity face significant welfare challenges due to their large home ranges, complex behavioral needs, and the difficulty of providing adequate environmental complexity.
Bear welfare in captivity represents a significant challenge for even well-resourced facilities. The dramatic difference between wild bear ranging behavior and captive enclosure constraints means that behavioral needs are inherently compromised in zoo settings. The high prevalence of stereotypic behaviors in captive bears indicates that most enclosures fail to provide adequate environmental complexity and foraging opportunity. Innovative enrichment programs that scatter food, create puzzle challenges, and vary environmental features daily can substantially improve welfare. Bear bile farming represents the extreme end of bear welfare failure - causing intense chronic suffering for millions of bears across Asia.