Bears in zoos require large spaces and complex enrichment to meet their natural behavioural needs. Welfare standards for zoo bears have improved significantly but gaps remain.
Zoo bear welfare has undergone dramatic improvement since the era of small concrete dens with daily food delivery. Modern best-practice bear enclosures provide naturalistic terrain, sensory enrichment, complex foraging challenges, and appropriate conspecific or managed social contact. However, even well-designed modern enclosures cannot fully replicate the ranging behaviour and ecological complexity that define wild bear lives. The key welfare metrics - absence of stereotypies, positive activity budgets, appropriate social behaviour - are achievable in well-designed facilities, and the gap between best practice and average practice remains a significant welfare concern in the global zoo community.