Proven: Bears, like humans and other primates, are omnivores and need far less protein than they normally eat in zoos. Even more: excess protein is associated with a higher incidence of kidney disease and shortens the lifespan of crop plants. And everything shows it this relationship can be extended to human.
A study just published in ‘Scientific Reports’ from Washington State University adds further evidence in this regard. Nutritional needs of giant pandas and sloth bears. The research is supplemented by a study of the same entity published a few months ago in ‘Zoo Biology’ that came to the same conclusions for polar bears.
Bears, unlike cats, for example, are not carnivores in the strict sense.. Charles Robbins, a professor of wildlife biology at Washington State University, who is the lead author of the two studies, warns of the mistake most zoos make with bears.
“Whether they are polar bears, grizzly bears or sloths, the advice has always been to feed them protein-rich diets, such as carnivores. When you do this you kill them slowlyRobbins is stressing.
As for the latest study, the researchers conducted separate experiments for giant pandas and sloths in captivity at different zoos in the United States. The animals had access to unlimited food of different types to test their preferences. They then recorded the nutritional profiles of their selections.
So, in collaboration with researchers from Texas A&M University and the Memphis Zoo, they ran nutritional tests on a pair of animals. giant pandas To measure your bamboo selection. they discovered this they prefer stems rich in carbohydratesfound on woody stems, leaves richest in protein.
liver cancer
At times, pandas eat almost exclusively culm (airborne stems); for example, 98% of the time it’s in March. The researchers analyzed data from five Chinese zoos with giant pandas and also found a high-carb, low-protein diet.
Meanwhile, six sloths from the Cleveland, Little Rock, and San Diego zoos received unlimited avocados, baked sweet potatoes, buttermilk, and apples. They almost exclusively chose high-fat avocados, consumed about 88% avocados and 12% sweet potatoes, and completely ignored apples.
This showed that Sloths prefer a high-fat, low-carb diet, similar to their wild diet. termites and ants, as well as their eggs and larvae. Their choices were very different from the high-carb diet they normally take in captivity.
Researchers this fact life expectancy. Native to India, sloth bears typically only live for about 17 years in zoos, about 20 years below the maximum achievable lifespan in the wild or under proper human care. The most common cause of death liver cancer.
In the case of It also happens that polar bears in zoos die about 10 years earlier than they should, often due to kidney and liver diseases.. These diseases can develop from prolonged inflammation of these organs, possibly caused by many years of poorly balanced nutrition.
50 million years of evolution
In zoos, polar bears are often fed a similar diet to big cats; this contains about two parts protein to one part fat, which is the opposite of what their wild counterparts consume.. However, all studies show that when captive bears have different dietary choices, they choose foods that mimic those of free-living individuals.
“There’s this idea that people with a PhD know a lot more than a sloth or grizzly bear,” says Robbins. “But bears began to evolve about 50 million years agoand in terms of this aspect of their diet, they know more than we do. We’re one of the first to ask the bears: What do you think? Do you want to eat? What makes you feel good?” he adds.
Robbins has been working on bear nutrition for decades. He and several graduate students began their research by watching grizzly bears eat salmon in Alaska. Before starting the research, there were theories that hungry bears would feed themselves with salmon, sleep, get up and eat more salmon. It was not like this: they confirmed the bears ate salmon, but then went away and spent hours looking for and eating the little berries.
Seeing this, Robbins, founder of the WSU Bear Center, the only research institution in the United States with a captive grizzly population, began investigating the diet of these animals and discovered that they gained more weight when fed a grizzly bear. combination of protein, fat and carbohydrates.
The conclusion of the scientists is this: Eight species of bears – Ursids – share a common carnivorous ancestor, but have since evolved to eat a wide variety of foods.This gave them the ability to spread over more areas, not directly competing with resident carnivores. “Being an omnivore opens up a lot more food sources than being a high-protein carnivore,” Robbins says.
Reference report: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-19742-z
Polar Bear Feeding Report: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/zoo.21658
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