May 6, 2022 • 26 mins
Amazing Wildlife takes a look at a tree-loving bear known for the light-colored fur around its eyes that looks like a pair of eyeglasses... the Andean bear! The Andean bear is special because it is the closest living relative of the extinct species of North American short-faced bear. Hosts Ebone Monet and Rick Schwartz explore the background of how this South American native has received its many names and how the prehistoric mammal has survived long after most of its closet relatives died out during the Ice Age. Dr. Russ Van Horn, a San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Scientist in Population Sustainability, joins the conversation to disclose how this remarkable bear has managed to survive and his role in leading the Alliance's Andean bear conservation program.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, I'm Ebony Money and I'm Rick Schwartz. Welcome to
Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from
around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast
is a production of I Heart Radio and San Diego
Zoo Wildlife Alliance, in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees
the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. The next species
(00:27):
were spotlighting, is known by several names. He's called the
spectacle bear for the rings of light fur around his eyes,
the mountain bear, a nod to its mountain habitats. This
bear lives in South America in and around the Andes
Mountain Range, hence the name Andian Bear. We will also
be speaking with Dr Russell Van Horne, as San Diego
(00:49):
Zoo Wildlife Alliance scientists who leads the Andian Bear conservation
program in conjunction with our partners, the Association of Zoos
and Aquariums, Filled Projects International, Manu National Park, Peru Verde
Manu Endemic Station and Amazon Conservation Association. Rick, how is
(01:13):
it that this bear has so many names? Well, Ebony,
It's not uncommon for a species that can live in
a wide variety of different countries and therefore cultures to
receive different common names from these different areas. And this
holds true for other species as well. I mean, for example,
right here in the US, we have the mountain lion,
the cougar, the puma, and the mountain streamer, and they're
(01:34):
all the same species of cat, but it has received
many common names due to the many different regions it inhabits. Now,
in the case of the Andian bear or spectacle bear,
it not only has to do with the different languages
from different cultures, but also how it looks. The common
name spectacle bear is in reference to the lighter color
of hair that circles around the eyes, almost making it
(01:55):
look like the bears wearing glasses. And then of course
another term for glasses is spectacles. And because of the
spectacle markings, this offers scientists the unique ability to identify
each bear by it's if you will, mug shot or photo,
so those markings that they're basically that sort of signature
for the individual. The markings also give the bear ittts
(02:15):
scientific name tremarctos or natas or decorated bear. Now, when
it comes to the Andian bear, I have a number
of questions with every species we explore. I approached the
conversation with my natural curiosity, and I also try to
imagine what people listening may want to ask, including my
very curious seven year old son Rick. What are some
(02:37):
of the topics will cover in our Andian bear conversation?
Oh goodness, Ebany, there are so many things we can
talk about, from their natural history to conservation. For instance,
did you know Andyan bears can be rather vocal? I mean,
at least for a bear. And we aren't talking about
the classic growl or roar that movies and television used
for bear noises. Andy, and bears communicate through squ eeks, shrills,
(03:05):
and even gentle purr like sounds. Oh, and Ebony, you
know bears can climb trees? Right? Yes, I think you're correct. Well,
Andian bears don't just climb trees. They love to climb trees,
and they do it so well. They can also forge
for food up in the foliage. And get this, they
(03:27):
will even make nest like structures or platforms in trees
to take a nap. All of this activity in the
trees has earned them the title of being a true
arboreal or tree dwelling bear. Now this doesn't mean that
they spend all of their time in the trees, but
they are well suited for spending a lot of time
in the trees. Oh and another interesting fact, these bears
(03:50):
like to keep to themselves and tend to avoid humans.
That makes them hard to find and challenging for scientists
to study them. Now, I wouldn't go so far as
to say we bear we know anything about them, but
it is fair to say we have more to learn.
So the Andian bear is is known as the last
of the short faced bears. What exactly is a short
(04:11):
faced bear? I'm really glad you asked, Ebony, because I'm
certain many people have never heard the term short faced bear.
And to understand this term, we need to look back
at the taxonomy of bears in taxonomy being the scientific
study of classifying living organisms. In the case of the
Andian bear, there in the subfamily tremark Toiney. Tremark Toiney
(04:33):
is a subfamily of the ursa day or the bear family. Now,
in this subfamily, Andy and bears are the only species
alive today, but at one time this subfamily had several species,
including the Florida Andian bear, North American short faced bear,
South American giant short faced bear, and several others. But
(04:53):
to get to the other part of your question, what
is a short faced bear? Well, again it's based on
the taxonomy, and often taxonomy classification is done by looking
at bone structure and size along with tooth layout. In
the case of bears and short face bears, things like
the structure of the jaw, skull size, shape, and composition
(05:14):
are all different enough to place the short faced bears
in their own subfamily. Additionally, you can look at the
muzzle of an Indian bear and see that it is
shorter than other bear species, so there's a slight visual
variance as well. So whatever happened to the other species
of short face bears now the other short faced bear
(05:34):
species all went extinct around the end of the Places
scene epoch about eleven thousand and twelve thousand years ago,
and this is a time when many large mammals such
as mammoths ground sloths, which I mean those guys were
huge and much larger short faced bears went extinct. There
are several different theories as to why these larger mammals
went extinct, but we don't really know for sure, do you? Scientists?
(05:57):
Have any any theories about the Andian bear in why
it survived and became the last of the short based bears.
Well Ebony. With a mass extinction of many large species
that came at the end of the place of the epoch,
there were many smaller species that did survive, and one
of those theories as to why smaller species thrived while
(06:18):
massive species did not is that the changing climate of
the earth at the time made it more difficult for
these larger species to survive. In general, so the Andian
bear is the only bear native to South America. Where
exactly are they found? Yes, that that is correctivity. The
Andian bear species is the only living bear species native
to South America and their name comes from the fact
(06:40):
that they often live in the cloud forests of the
Andes Mountains and outlying mountain ranges. They can be found
from Venezuela south through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and into Bolivia.
And like we discussed, they are aar boreal or well
adapted for life in the trees, so they are found
in the forests, but also they can sometimes wander into
(07:01):
the shrub lands and grasslands near the forest. Rick I
had a chance to visit the Antian bear habitat at
the San Diego Zoo, and a couple of things really
stood out to me, like the nest. What's the connection
with the nests that you see in the habitat? Oh
I love this question, ebity, because very rarely when we
(07:21):
think about bears do we think about a nest or
a platform in the trees. Most of us think of
bears is living in dens or hollowed out trees or caves, right.
But but our friend the Indian bear likes to do
things a bit different. They love to eat plants that
grow in the trees. Some fruits that they can even
be found up there as well are part of their menu.
(07:41):
So they will actually build a platform using sticks to
allow them to reach the foods they like most and
they will even sometimes catch a nap in that platform
or nest that they have built. So honestly, it's pretty ingenious.
And at the San Diego Zoo we provide them with
the climbing structures, trees, branches, and other things that they
can create platforms and nests for themselves. And one of
(08:04):
the other things I noticed even the bears food was
was elevated. What's the purpose of making the food somewhat
more challenging to access. I wouldn't really say challenging because
if you think about in their native habitats, Andian bears
will eat fruits that grow in trees. Oh and romelias too,
a type of plant species that will live on a
host tree. So to get these foods, of course, the
(08:27):
bear naturally has to climb, and as we discussed, they
climb quite well. In fact, Andian bears have been known
to sit in a tree for days waiting for fruit
to ripen. And to be fair, they will also eat
other fruits that grow on smaller plants, grasses, and even
some small animals like rodents, rabbits, and birds. At the
San Diego Zoo, where the bears are under human care,
(08:49):
we could just place the food on the ground and
put it in an habitat and call it a day.
But we recognize the Indian bears are smart, they enjoy
problem solving. They've evolved to climb and use their senses
to find their food, so we recreate these experiences for
them in their habitats. Yes, Rick, I did notice the
the ease at which the the Anian bear climbed the
(09:12):
branches while I was visiting the San Diego Zoo. So,
how does the Andian bears climbing skills compare to other
species of bears. Well, I think it's fair to say
any that the Andian bear is an absolute pro compared
to other bears when it comes to climbing trees. It's
not uncommon for us to see videos of black bears
(09:32):
here in North America climbing trees, or even young brown
bears climbing trees. But for as much as we have
seen pictures or videos of that happening, that's not where
they normally spend most of their time. In fact, one
might even consider it rare. But the Andian bear spends
a lot of time in the trees, and that's what
they're well suited for. Another thing stood out when I
(09:54):
visited the Antian bear um, which is its size. I
got to a good view and it seemed to me
pretty small. How does the bear size compared to other bears? Yeah,
I think that's a fair assessment, ebany. I mean, when
it comes to bears, Andian bears are on the smaller
side compared to say, grizzly bears and polar bears. A
male Andian bear can be about five and a half
(10:16):
to six and a half feet in length from nose
to rump. Where you compare that to a grizzly bear,
they can go as far as nine feet from nose
to rump, and an Andian bear can weigh around you know,
two pounds up to three five pounds. Females are even
smaller at one thirty two about and seventy six pounds.
But again we compare that to the grizzly male, Well,
(10:37):
they can weigh up to seven hundred to a thousand pounds.
So yeah, Indian bears are a bit smaller. So Rick,
what's the Indian bears threat or or threats in nature? Well,
it's a great question, eany. The International Union of Conservation
of Nature or i uc AND lists them as vulnerable,
meaning they aren't endangered yet, but they are vulnerable to extinction.
(10:58):
One of the biggest challenges they faces habitat loss and
habitat fragmentation. And a big challenge of habitat fragmentation is
it prevents the bears from finding each other for breeding purposes. This,
of course impacts the ability than to add to the population.
Other challenges they face include illegal hunting, also known as poaching,
habitat loss due to mining, lumber operations, and farming. It
(11:20):
is worth noting though, on the other side of all
of these challenges, there are a lot of people doing
some work right now to better understand the needs of
the Indian bear and how we can reverse the current
trend of the population decline. Coming up, we'll be talking
to the head of our Indian Bear conservation program, San
Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance scientists Dr Russ van Horn. But
(11:42):
first this all right, Now, it's time for the San
Diego Zoo Safari Park Minute, an opportunity for you to
learn what's new at the Zoo. Welcome the newest member
of the Condor Club. The three juveniles are critical to
the recovery of the species and will contribute to our
(12:04):
conservation efforts when they reach adulthood. These three chicks were
given names by members of the Kumay Bands of San Diego.
The Kumai bands include San Pasquell, Campo Kumai and Santa
Isabelle of Kumai. These three birds were named metap my
wom meaning high wind writer, poemon Cocker meaning far off flyer,
(12:26):
and io pomont meaning flies through. They are representatives of
their species, which are seen as symbols of power by
indigenous North American people. Today we're learning more about andy
and bears. Joining this conversation as someone very knowledgeable about
(12:49):
the subject, Dr Russ van Horn as San Diego Zoo
wild Life Alliance scientists and population sustainability He leads our
Andyan bear conservation program. Hi us, Yeah, hello, thanks for
asking me on sure things. So you've studied a lot
of different animals in your career, including l bison, hyenas um.
(13:09):
How did you end up studying Andian bears in Peru?
It was definitely not part of a long term career plan.
Just followed opportunities when they arose. Curiosity about wildlife, trying
to figure out how things work, and then an interesting
conservation that led me through different projects programs to the
(13:33):
opportunity that rose for me to pursue my curiosity in
a way that I thought I could actually help with
conservation of Indian bears and other forest Mammo. So I
left at the chance to join the San Diego Zoo
wild Life Alliance. And what can you tell us about
the Andian bear conservation program? Yes, it's one of the
conservation programs in the Alliances Amazonia Hub. It's a long
(13:57):
term program and it's very colled, but if we work
with people inside and outside of the alliance, work with
governmental agencies and other researchers and academics and community members.
The overall goal is to support bear welfare and husbandry
and zoos, of course, but the primary goal is to
help provide the information and the tools for long term
(14:21):
sustainable conservation action and planning in the Indian bear's range.
And really we're trying to keep the options open for
people as they work for sustainable coexistence between people and bears.
That's fascinating. So the program is based in Peru. Why Peru? Yeah,
(14:42):
we we collaborate with people across the bear's range, but
we really do focus in Peru for our field work
because it's thought that's where most of the bear habitat
is left, and the most intact patches of habitat are left.
The bear in Peru and throughout its lives in very
diverse habitats and ecosystems, but Peru we think has most
(15:05):
of it left. And governmental agencies and different non governmental
organizations were interested in bear conservations, so it looked as Okay,
if we go after this, maybe we can make a
difference in the conservation for this bear. So the need existed,
and and we thought maybe we could help fill that need.
(15:25):
And another non biological reason for being interested in working
Peru is that many of the cultures in the areas
where the bear lives placed a lot of importance on
the bear. So by working to conserve the bear improved,
we would hopefully be also helping people to to conserve
an element of their culture. Rust what else can you
(15:50):
tell us about the end in bear's natural habitat, It's
very diverse. They seem to be strongly linked to forests.
They will go out into alpine gut lands or shrub lands,
but they really seem to be tied to forests. But
the forests very a great deal, from really dry, fairly
open forests to very wet cloud forests. And it's really
(16:15):
kind of impressive when you think about it, because this
bears range naturally goes north and south about thirty degrees
in latitude, and that's more than the contiguous United States,
and that's that's almost as far north south as the
distance from San Diego where I am now to the equator.
So there's a lot of variation north south, and then
(16:37):
that means there's a lot of variation in the amount
of light change throughout the year, and there's also a
big spread and elevation. We think these bears live at
elevations that range more than three thousand meters in elevation
or more than like ten thousand feet. So there they
live in a lot of really diverse areas, but they
seem to be pretty much linked to forest in or
(17:01):
any of the diverse areas which there in which they're found.
Are any of these in close contact to people. That's
one of the challenges and kind of the opportunities for
anti Barrick conservation is that right now we think that
the the most important habitats for these bears tend to
be the cloud forests, but there's no real way to
(17:23):
test whether that is the has always been so because
people have been living in the South American Indian countries
for centuries. I mean, the Inca and other civilizations really
changed a lot of the habitats before Europeans ever arrived,
and so we don't know whether these cloud forests are
the most important areas or whether that's where their bears
(17:46):
can currently live because there are a fewer people there.
Because it does seem as though an Antian bears live
in close proximity with people, they tend to get into trouble.
They do things like going and eating corn fields. And
of course, if you're if you're a rural farmer and
you're depending or you're counting on that cornfield to feed
(18:07):
you chickens or to raise money, you might be kind
of annoyed if a bear comes in and destroys part
of it. And so the bears can live close to people,
but when they do it kind of creates is friction
with people, and so that's one of the challenges to
figure out how can people and bears co exist together.
At one point, Andy and bears were thought to be nocturnal,
(18:30):
but I understand that more recent research suggests the possibility
that that they may not be. Can can you tell
us about these these developments. It's pretty interesting because it's
sort of reflects how technology can change what we think
we know about about the species. Because I think a
lot of people um sort of concluded that the bears
(18:52):
were nocturnal because you don't see them much. You see
evidence that their bears out there. Maybe occasionally you would
see a bear, but you don't act we see the
bear itself, so you might think, well, I'm not seering
them during the daytime, which is when I'm out for it,
so they must be active at night. I think that's
probably how people concluded that the bears are nocturnal. But
(19:13):
once we had this new technology, these trail cameras, these
camera traps, and you can put those out there in
the forest where there's no human around, then we started
seeing that while the bears are mostly active during the day,
it must just be that they're really good at knowing
when there is a human around and they avoid being seen.
That makes them kind of a challenge to study, but
(19:34):
the trail cameras have really really been a valuable tool
for science. You mentioned the local people in the South
American countries um where these bears are found. How are
how are they locals assisting with with some of your research.
We integrate with people from mostly from Peru in different ways.
(19:57):
Long term, the whole that the information that we're collecting
will help feed into governmental agencies at different levels, and
we collaborate with a variety of private NGOs who manage
conservation concessions some of those are are where some of
our sampling areas are and those are outside of Manu
National Park right now, and we're also connective research inside
(20:22):
Manu National Park and in some man in countries there's
really strong management and conservation and natural reasons by local communities.
Um that difference that differs across countries and even within
different countries. But really I'm the only North American in
this program. All of our field staff are from the
(20:44):
area where we work, and there are a lot of
reasons for doing that. Part of it is that they're there,
they should really be involved. We're providing opportunities for them
and also training and mentorship. Long term, they would be
great if our words capacity in the South American countries
to to do all of this work on their own,
(21:06):
and we hope we get there someday. What is the
role of our our partners in this program. There is
so much that we don't know, There's so much to learn,
so much work to do that no no one organization,
no one individual could ever do it on their own.
And where the bear lives is so diverse, and so
(21:28):
many different ecological contexts and so many different conservation contexts
that really if we want to be affective, we have
to work with partners together information and so part of
it is sharing data's, part of it is sharing samples,
and also to help develop really effective conservation plans, because
(21:49):
we don't have the right or the responsibility to be
telling people this is what we think you should do
to conserve your bear. Oh we should be My opinion
is um that our all should be to help them
develop that for themselves. And how does the data collected
by zoos contribute to conservation efforts. Initially, some of the
(22:12):
work was just with demographic records that the zoo's different
zoos have kept over their histories, because zoos keep track
of which individuals live where, when they may, when they
give birth, how long they live, and when they die.
And that's really valuable in information because it can tell
us something about what is the average lifespan and a
(22:35):
zoo of an Antian bear, and that can provide a
reference for what we might expect in the field. The
patterns of births in Indian bears throughout the where they've
been kept in various zoos suggests that there's pretty strong seasonality,
so that if you're closer to the equator bears could
(22:55):
give birth over most of the year because you go
farther south towards the the lower edge of the range,
perhaps down in Bolivia, they're probably only giving birth in
a narrower point of both time, and that's something that
would be very hard to learn from just field work. Also,
when anyone goes to a zoo and they see a
(23:17):
nandie and bear, they're getting a better look at that
bear than we almost ever will in the field. And
we're using information about what the bears look like to
develop tools that think will be able to use in
the field. So I'm collaborating with some people that run
a project called Bear i d and these are a
mix of bear biologists brought by or biologists and computer
(23:40):
science experts that we're working a machine learning to see
if we can automatically identify individuals of different bear species,
and we hope that down the road will be able
to also say the bear in this photo is a male,
or the bear in this photo is a female, which
is really hard to figure out for an in bears,
and the or that would be able to take a
(24:02):
photo from the field and say this month that bear
wears two weighs two seventy pounds. Six months ago it
weighed two d and fifty pounds. That would says, hey,
what was that bear eating? It gained weight. The other
thing we're doing is with samples and information from zoos
is Um, collaborating with Dr Milan Kensick Watts, who is
(24:28):
developing a genomics tool that using samples from pairs of
zoos across North America and then some samples of bears
from a couple of the range countries to develop this
tool that will allow us to conduct really great genetic
analysis using just a couple of hairs from a while bear.
(24:50):
Right now, that's not possible, but these bears under human
care provide reference. They're living natural history means MS and
we can really learn from working with them. Well, Russ,
it has been great talking with you. I really enjoyed
our conversation. Thank you, and thank you for giving me
the chance to talk about this really cool bear species. Yeah.
(25:13):
I learned a lot and I enjoyed it, and we
hope that you learned a lot about the bear with
many names, the Andian bear. And be sure to subscribe
and tune into next week's episode, in which we bring
you the story of the land iguana with a very
unique coloration and genetics that set it apart from all
other land iguana species. I'm Ebene Mone and I'm Rich Schwartz.
(25:38):
Thanks for listening. If you would like to find out
more about San Diego Zoo Wild Like Alliance, please visit
sdz w a dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production
of I Heart Radio. Our producer is Nikkia Swinton and
our executive producer is Marcia to Peanut. Our sound engineer
and editor is Amita Gnatra. For more shows from my
heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(26:01):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M HM.
Hi, I'm Ebony Money and I'm Rick Schwartz. Welcome to
Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from
around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast
is a production of I Heart Radio and San Diego
Zoo Wildlife Alliance, in international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees
the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. The next species
(00:27):
were spotlighting, is known by several names. He's called the
spectacle bear for the rings of light fur around his eyes,
the mountain bear, a nod to its mountain habitats. This
bear lives in South America in and around the Andes
Mountain Range, hence the name Andian Bear. We will also
be speaking with Dr Russell Van Horne, as San Diego
(00:49):
Zoo Wildlife Alliance scientists who leads the Andian Bear conservation
program in conjunction with our partners, the Association of Zoos
and Aquariums, Filled Projects International, Manu National Park, Peru Verde
Manu Endemic Station and Amazon Conservation Association. Rick, how is
(01:13):
it that this bear has so many names? Well, Ebony,
It's not uncommon for a species that can live in
a wide variety of different countries and therefore cultures to
receive different common names from these different areas. And this
holds true for other species as well. I mean, for example,
right here in the US, we have the mountain lion,
the cougar, the puma, and the mountain streamer, and they're
(01:34):
all the same species of cat, but it has received
many common names due to the many different regions it inhabits. Now,
in the case of the Andian bear or spectacle bear,
it not only has to do with the different languages
from different cultures, but also how it looks. The common
name spectacle bear is in reference to the lighter color
of hair that circles around the eyes, almost making it
(01:55):
look like the bears wearing glasses. And then of course
another term for glasses is spectacles. And because of the
spectacle markings, this offers scientists the unique ability to identify
each bear by it's if you will, mug shot or photo,
so those markings that they're basically that sort of signature
for the individual. The markings also give the bear ittts
(02:15):
scientific name tremarctos or natas or decorated bear. Now, when
it comes to the Andian bear, I have a number
of questions with every species we explore. I approached the
conversation with my natural curiosity, and I also try to
imagine what people listening may want to ask, including my
very curious seven year old son Rick. What are some
(02:37):
of the topics will cover in our Andian bear conversation?
Oh goodness, Ebany, there are so many things we can
talk about, from their natural history to conservation. For instance,
did you know Andyan bears can be rather vocal? I mean,
at least for a bear. And we aren't talking about
the classic growl or roar that movies and television used
for bear noises. Andy, and bears communicate through squ eeks, shrills,
(03:05):
and even gentle purr like sounds. Oh, and Ebony, you
know bears can climb trees? Right? Yes, I think you're correct. Well,
Andian bears don't just climb trees. They love to climb trees,
and they do it so well. They can also forge
for food up in the foliage. And get this, they
(03:27):
will even make nest like structures or platforms in trees
to take a nap. All of this activity in the
trees has earned them the title of being a true
arboreal or tree dwelling bear. Now this doesn't mean that
they spend all of their time in the trees, but
they are well suited for spending a lot of time
in the trees. Oh and another interesting fact, these bears
(03:50):
like to keep to themselves and tend to avoid humans.
That makes them hard to find and challenging for scientists
to study them. Now, I wouldn't go so far as
to say we bear we know anything about them, but
it is fair to say we have more to learn.
So the Andian bear is is known as the last
of the short faced bears. What exactly is a short
(04:11):
faced bear? I'm really glad you asked, Ebony, because I'm
certain many people have never heard the term short faced bear.
And to understand this term, we need to look back
at the taxonomy of bears in taxonomy being the scientific
study of classifying living organisms. In the case of the
Andian bear, there in the subfamily tremark Toiney. Tremark Toiney
(04:33):
is a subfamily of the ursa day or the bear family. Now,
in this subfamily, Andy and bears are the only species
alive today, but at one time this subfamily had several species,
including the Florida Andian bear, North American short faced bear,
South American giant short faced bear, and several others. But
(04:53):
to get to the other part of your question, what
is a short faced bear? Well, again it's based on
the taxonomy, and often taxonomy classification is done by looking
at bone structure and size along with tooth layout. In
the case of bears and short face bears, things like
the structure of the jaw, skull size, shape, and composition
(05:14):
are all different enough to place the short faced bears
in their own subfamily. Additionally, you can look at the
muzzle of an Indian bear and see that it is
shorter than other bear species, so there's a slight visual
variance as well. So whatever happened to the other species
of short face bears now the other short faced bear
(05:34):
species all went extinct around the end of the Places
scene epoch about eleven thousand and twelve thousand years ago,
and this is a time when many large mammals such
as mammoths ground sloths, which I mean those guys were
huge and much larger short faced bears went extinct. There
are several different theories as to why these larger mammals
went extinct, but we don't really know for sure, do you? Scientists?
(05:57):
Have any any theories about the Andian bear in why
it survived and became the last of the short based bears.
Well Ebony. With a mass extinction of many large species
that came at the end of the place of the epoch,
there were many smaller species that did survive, and one
of those theories as to why smaller species thrived while
(06:18):
massive species did not is that the changing climate of
the earth at the time made it more difficult for
these larger species to survive. In general, so the Andian
bear is the only bear native to South America. Where
exactly are they found? Yes, that that is correctivity. The
Andian bear species is the only living bear species native
to South America and their name comes from the fact
(06:40):
that they often live in the cloud forests of the
Andes Mountains and outlying mountain ranges. They can be found
from Venezuela south through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and into Bolivia.
And like we discussed, they are aar boreal or well
adapted for life in the trees, so they are found
in the forests, but also they can sometimes wander into
(07:01):
the shrub lands and grasslands near the forest. Rick I
had a chance to visit the Antian bear habitat at
the San Diego Zoo, and a couple of things really
stood out to me, like the nest. What's the connection
with the nests that you see in the habitat? Oh
I love this question, ebity, because very rarely when we
(07:21):
think about bears do we think about a nest or
a platform in the trees. Most of us think of
bears is living in dens or hollowed out trees or caves, right.
But but our friend the Indian bear likes to do
things a bit different. They love to eat plants that
grow in the trees. Some fruits that they can even
be found up there as well are part of their menu.
(07:41):
So they will actually build a platform using sticks to
allow them to reach the foods they like most and
they will even sometimes catch a nap in that platform
or nest that they have built. So honestly, it's pretty ingenious.
And at the San Diego Zoo we provide them with
the climbing structures, trees, branches, and other things that they
can create platforms and nests for themselves. And one of
(08:04):
the other things I noticed even the bears food was
was elevated. What's the purpose of making the food somewhat
more challenging to access. I wouldn't really say challenging because
if you think about in their native habitats, Andian bears
will eat fruits that grow in trees. Oh and romelias too,
a type of plant species that will live on a
host tree. So to get these foods, of course, the
(08:27):
bear naturally has to climb, and as we discussed, they
climb quite well. In fact, Andian bears have been known
to sit in a tree for days waiting for fruit
to ripen. And to be fair, they will also eat
other fruits that grow on smaller plants, grasses, and even
some small animals like rodents, rabbits, and birds. At the
San Diego Zoo, where the bears are under human care,
(08:49):
we could just place the food on the ground and
put it in an habitat and call it a day.
But we recognize the Indian bears are smart, they enjoy
problem solving. They've evolved to climb and use their senses
to find their food, so we recreate these experiences for
them in their habitats. Yes, Rick, I did notice the
the ease at which the the Anian bear climbed the
(09:12):
branches while I was visiting the San Diego Zoo. So,
how does the Andian bears climbing skills compare to other
species of bears. Well, I think it's fair to say
any that the Andian bear is an absolute pro compared
to other bears when it comes to climbing trees. It's
not uncommon for us to see videos of black bears
(09:32):
here in North America climbing trees, or even young brown
bears climbing trees. But for as much as we have
seen pictures or videos of that happening, that's not where
they normally spend most of their time. In fact, one
might even consider it rare. But the Andian bear spends
a lot of time in the trees, and that's what
they're well suited for. Another thing stood out when I
(09:54):
visited the Antian bear um, which is its size. I
got to a good view and it seemed to me
pretty small. How does the bear size compared to other bears? Yeah,
I think that's a fair assessment, ebany. I mean, when
it comes to bears, Andian bears are on the smaller
side compared to say, grizzly bears and polar bears. A
male Andian bear can be about five and a half
(10:16):
to six and a half feet in length from nose
to rump. Where you compare that to a grizzly bear,
they can go as far as nine feet from nose
to rump, and an Andian bear can weigh around you know,
two pounds up to three five pounds. Females are even
smaller at one thirty two about and seventy six pounds.
But again we compare that to the grizzly male, Well,
(10:37):
they can weigh up to seven hundred to a thousand pounds.
So yeah, Indian bears are a bit smaller. So Rick,
what's the Indian bears threat or or threats in nature? Well,
it's a great question, eany. The International Union of Conservation
of Nature or i uc AND lists them as vulnerable,
meaning they aren't endangered yet, but they are vulnerable to extinction.
(10:58):
One of the biggest challenges they faces habitat loss and
habitat fragmentation. And a big challenge of habitat fragmentation is
it prevents the bears from finding each other for breeding purposes. This,
of course impacts the ability than to add to the population.
Other challenges they face include illegal hunting, also known as poaching,
habitat loss due to mining, lumber operations, and farming. It
(11:20):
is worth noting though, on the other side of all
of these challenges, there are a lot of people doing
some work right now to better understand the needs of
the Indian bear and how we can reverse the current
trend of the population decline. Coming up, we'll be talking
to the head of our Indian Bear conservation program, San
Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance scientists Dr Russ van Horn. But
(11:42):
first this all right, Now, it's time for the San
Diego Zoo Safari Park Minute, an opportunity for you to
learn what's new at the Zoo. Welcome the newest member
of the Condor Club. The three juveniles are critical to
the recovery of the species and will contribute to our
(12:04):
conservation efforts when they reach adulthood. These three chicks were
given names by members of the Kumay Bands of San Diego.
The Kumai bands include San Pasquell, Campo Kumai and Santa
Isabelle of Kumai. These three birds were named metap my
wom meaning high wind writer, poemon Cocker meaning far off flyer,
(12:26):
and io pomont meaning flies through. They are representatives of
their species, which are seen as symbols of power by
indigenous North American people. Today we're learning more about andy
and bears. Joining this conversation as someone very knowledgeable about
(12:49):
the subject, Dr Russ van Horn as San Diego Zoo
wild Life Alliance scientists and population sustainability He leads our
Andyan bear conservation program. Hi us, Yeah, hello, thanks for
asking me on sure things. So you've studied a lot
of different animals in your career, including l bison, hyenas um.
(13:09):
How did you end up studying Andian bears in Peru?
It was definitely not part of a long term career plan.
Just followed opportunities when they arose. Curiosity about wildlife, trying
to figure out how things work, and then an interesting
conservation that led me through different projects programs to the
(13:33):
opportunity that rose for me to pursue my curiosity in
a way that I thought I could actually help with
conservation of Indian bears and other forest Mammo. So I
left at the chance to join the San Diego Zoo
wild Life Alliance. And what can you tell us about
the Andian bear conservation program? Yes, it's one of the
conservation programs in the Alliances Amazonia Hub. It's a long
(13:57):
term program and it's very colled, but if we work
with people inside and outside of the alliance, work with
governmental agencies and other researchers and academics and community members.
The overall goal is to support bear welfare and husbandry
and zoos, of course, but the primary goal is to
help provide the information and the tools for long term
(14:21):
sustainable conservation action and planning in the Indian bear's range.
And really we're trying to keep the options open for
people as they work for sustainable coexistence between people and bears.
That's fascinating. So the program is based in Peru. Why Peru? Yeah,
(14:42):
we we collaborate with people across the bear's range, but
we really do focus in Peru for our field work
because it's thought that's where most of the bear habitat
is left, and the most intact patches of habitat are left.
The bear in Peru and throughout its lives in very
diverse habitats and ecosystems, but Peru we think has most
(15:05):
of it left. And governmental agencies and different non governmental
organizations were interested in bear conservations, so it looked as Okay,
if we go after this, maybe we can make a
difference in the conservation for this bear. So the need existed,
and and we thought maybe we could help fill that need.
(15:25):
And another non biological reason for being interested in working
Peru is that many of the cultures in the areas
where the bear lives placed a lot of importance on
the bear. So by working to conserve the bear improved,
we would hopefully be also helping people to to conserve
an element of their culture. Rust what else can you
(15:50):
tell us about the end in bear's natural habitat, It's
very diverse. They seem to be strongly linked to forests.
They will go out into alpine gut lands or shrub lands,
but they really seem to be tied to forests. But
the forests very a great deal, from really dry, fairly
open forests to very wet cloud forests. And it's really
(16:15):
kind of impressive when you think about it, because this
bears range naturally goes north and south about thirty degrees
in latitude, and that's more than the contiguous United States,
and that's that's almost as far north south as the
distance from San Diego where I am now to the equator.
So there's a lot of variation north south, and then
(16:37):
that means there's a lot of variation in the amount
of light change throughout the year, and there's also a
big spread and elevation. We think these bears live at
elevations that range more than three thousand meters in elevation
or more than like ten thousand feet. So there they
live in a lot of really diverse areas, but they
seem to be pretty much linked to forest in or
(17:01):
any of the diverse areas which there in which they're found.
Are any of these in close contact to people. That's
one of the challenges and kind of the opportunities for
anti Barrick conservation is that right now we think that
the the most important habitats for these bears tend to
be the cloud forests, but there's no real way to
(17:23):
test whether that is the has always been so because
people have been living in the South American Indian countries
for centuries. I mean, the Inca and other civilizations really
changed a lot of the habitats before Europeans ever arrived,
and so we don't know whether these cloud forests are
the most important areas or whether that's where their bears
(17:46):
can currently live because there are a fewer people there.
Because it does seem as though an Antian bears live
in close proximity with people, they tend to get into trouble.
They do things like going and eating corn fields. And
of course, if you're if you're a rural farmer and
you're depending or you're counting on that cornfield to feed
(18:07):
you chickens or to raise money, you might be kind
of annoyed if a bear comes in and destroys part
of it. And so the bears can live close to people,
but when they do it kind of creates is friction
with people, and so that's one of the challenges to
figure out how can people and bears co exist together.
At one point, Andy and bears were thought to be nocturnal,
(18:30):
but I understand that more recent research suggests the possibility
that that they may not be. Can can you tell
us about these these developments. It's pretty interesting because it's
sort of reflects how technology can change what we think
we know about about the species. Because I think a
lot of people um sort of concluded that the bears
(18:52):
were nocturnal because you don't see them much. You see
evidence that their bears out there. Maybe occasionally you would
see a bear, but you don't act we see the
bear itself, so you might think, well, I'm not seering
them during the daytime, which is when I'm out for it,
so they must be active at night. I think that's
probably how people concluded that the bears are nocturnal. But
(19:13):
once we had this new technology, these trail cameras, these
camera traps, and you can put those out there in
the forest where there's no human around, then we started
seeing that while the bears are mostly active during the day,
it must just be that they're really good at knowing
when there is a human around and they avoid being seen.
That makes them kind of a challenge to study, but
(19:34):
the trail cameras have really really been a valuable tool
for science. You mentioned the local people in the South
American countries um where these bears are found. How are
how are they locals assisting with with some of your research.
We integrate with people from mostly from Peru in different ways.
(19:57):
Long term, the whole that the information that we're collecting
will help feed into governmental agencies at different levels, and
we collaborate with a variety of private NGOs who manage
conservation concessions some of those are are where some of
our sampling areas are and those are outside of Manu
National Park right now, and we're also connective research inside
(20:22):
Manu National Park and in some man in countries there's
really strong management and conservation and natural reasons by local communities.
Um that difference that differs across countries and even within
different countries. But really I'm the only North American in
this program. All of our field staff are from the
(20:44):
area where we work, and there are a lot of
reasons for doing that. Part of it is that they're there,
they should really be involved. We're providing opportunities for them
and also training and mentorship. Long term, they would be
great if our words capacity in the South American countries
to to do all of this work on their own,
(21:06):
and we hope we get there someday. What is the
role of our our partners in this program. There is
so much that we don't know, There's so much to learn,
so much work to do that no no one organization,
no one individual could ever do it on their own.
And where the bear lives is so diverse, and so
(21:28):
many different ecological contexts and so many different conservation contexts
that really if we want to be affective, we have
to work with partners together information and so part of
it is sharing data's, part of it is sharing samples,
and also to help develop really effective conservation plans, because
(21:49):
we don't have the right or the responsibility to be
telling people this is what we think you should do
to conserve your bear. Oh we should be My opinion
is um that our all should be to help them
develop that for themselves. And how does the data collected
by zoos contribute to conservation efforts. Initially, some of the
(22:12):
work was just with demographic records that the zoo's different
zoos have kept over their histories, because zoos keep track
of which individuals live where, when they may, when they
give birth, how long they live, and when they die.
And that's really valuable in information because it can tell
us something about what is the average lifespan and a
(22:35):
zoo of an Antian bear, and that can provide a
reference for what we might expect in the field. The
patterns of births in Indian bears throughout the where they've
been kept in various zoos suggests that there's pretty strong seasonality,
so that if you're closer to the equator bears could
(22:55):
give birth over most of the year because you go
farther south towards the the lower edge of the range,
perhaps down in Bolivia, they're probably only giving birth in
a narrower point of both time, and that's something that
would be very hard to learn from just field work. Also,
when anyone goes to a zoo and they see a
(23:17):
nandie and bear, they're getting a better look at that
bear than we almost ever will in the field. And
we're using information about what the bears look like to
develop tools that think will be able to use in
the field. So I'm collaborating with some people that run
a project called Bear i d and these are a
mix of bear biologists brought by or biologists and computer
(23:40):
science experts that we're working a machine learning to see
if we can automatically identify individuals of different bear species,
and we hope that down the road will be able
to also say the bear in this photo is a male,
or the bear in this photo is a female, which
is really hard to figure out for an in bears,
and the or that would be able to take a
(24:02):
photo from the field and say this month that bear
wears two weighs two seventy pounds. Six months ago it
weighed two d and fifty pounds. That would says, hey,
what was that bear eating? It gained weight. The other
thing we're doing is with samples and information from zoos
is Um, collaborating with Dr Milan Kensick Watts, who is
(24:28):
developing a genomics tool that using samples from pairs of
zoos across North America and then some samples of bears
from a couple of the range countries to develop this
tool that will allow us to conduct really great genetic
analysis using just a couple of hairs from a while bear.
(24:50):
Right now, that's not possible, but these bears under human
care provide reference. They're living natural history means MS and
we can really learn from working with them. Well, Russ,
it has been great talking with you. I really enjoyed
our conversation. Thank you, and thank you for giving me
the chance to talk about this really cool bear species. Yeah.
(25:13):
I learned a lot and I enjoyed it, and we
hope that you learned a lot about the bear with
many names, the Andian bear. And be sure to subscribe
and tune into next week's episode, in which we bring
you the story of the land iguana with a very
unique coloration and genetics that set it apart from all
other land iguana species. I'm Ebene Mone and I'm Rich Schwartz.
(25:38):
Thanks for listening. If you would like to find out
more about San Diego Zoo Wild Like Alliance, please visit
sdz w a dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production
of I Heart Radio. Our producer is Nikkia Swinton and
our executive producer is Marcia to Peanut. Our sound engineer
and editor is Amita Gnatra. For more shows from my
heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(26:01):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M HM.
Hosts And Creators
Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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