Animal keepers in the Leipzig zoo are puzzled by the spectacled bears’ baldness, which has been blamed on a mystery disease.
Named Dolores, Bianca and Lolita, the animals are in various states of baldness, with the worst having lost their thick coat all over. In this condition, the bears are suffering from itchiness as well, so animal keepers apply ointments to soothe their skin.
With temperatures dropping, visitors to the zoo were left feeling sorry for the animals as they watched them walk around their enclosure without their normal furry protection.
“This problem with the spectacled bears is not just in Leipzig,” zoo curator Gerd Noetzhold said. ”There are other zoos in Europe and overseas having the same problem. And so we’ve had an international working group of zoo vets looking at this for some time already.”
Gerard Baars, director of the International Bear Foundation, is baffled. ”I could hardly believe it is a bear, although I have been dealing with bears all my life,” Baars said.
Signs of this mystery disease started to show in the animals about two years ago.
[via bbc.co.uk; image: AP]
I recently visited the Detroit Zoo and noticed that the bear was shedding a lot of fur as well. I thought maybe the bear was in this condition due to being in captivity and under stress. I am no expert, but has anyone looked at the bears in natural-habitat settings to make the same observation, or is the fur loss only in zoo bears?