Bald bears puzzled naturalists

Dolores, Bianca and Lolita also suffer from constant itching, so that the caretakers have to lubricate the skin of the animals. The first symptoms appeared about two years ago, however, according to curator Gerd Noetzhold, a similar problem exists in many other zoos.

"This problem with spectacled bears is not unique to Leipzig," he said. "Other zoos in Europe and elsewhere have the same problem. And we've had an international team of veterinarians here for some time now." And Jerad Baars, DIRECTOR of the International Bear Foundation, says he's never seen anything like it: "I couldn't believe they were bears, even though I've been working with bears all my life."

The natural habitat of these bears is the South American Andes: Ecuador, Peru, northern Bolivia. According to J. Baars, this may be one of the reasons for the strange phenomenon. "I would suggest that both diet and climate play a role, because these are tropical animals, and we moved them to our climate," the specialist says.

Now J. Baars calls on the management of the Leipzig Zoo to take special measures in view of the imminent onset of winter. "Bears should be kept indoors, a tropical climate should be created with high temperatures, humidity, and lots of straw on the floor," the expert recommends. The whole life of mountain bears - their behavior and diet - is built on a schedule dictated by seasonal climate changes, "and we in zoos are not very good at simulating the change of seasons in natural conditions," he adds.