Employees of the zoo in Leipzig (Germany) are sounding the alarm. Three bears live in one enclosure, but this can only be understood from the inscriptions, since the animals are completely bald.
In a matter of months, clubfoot lost almost all its hair. Why? Even experienced veterinarians find it difficult to answer this question. The animals decided to add vitamin-mineral complexes to the diet, but this does not help yet. It seems that nothing threatens the lives of the bears, but they feel uncomfortable. Most of all the zoo employees are worried that the bears are bald on the eve of severe colds. The bald bear does not hibernate, therefore, for the winter, animals will be placed in closed, heated rooms.
Until recently, female spectacled bears — fifteen-year-old Dolores and eleven-year-old Lolita — were dark brown and furry. Now these are completely bald animals.
The cause of this baldness has not yet been elucidated. A bald bear has only a little hair on its head. The third female, Bianchi, still had some hair on her paws.
Spectacled bears around the eyes have circles that resemble glasses. Having lost hair, the bald bear is depressed and begins to itch. In order for animals to scratch less and not to scratch themselves, they are regularly smeared with creams.
Local experts are at a loss over what could provoke this clinic. Veterinarians suggest that baldness may have arisen as a result of a genetic malfunction, which for some reason suddenly made itself felt. Some believe that a bald bear could lose hair due to stress caused by prolonged captivity. Previously, a similar clinic was observed in animals living in zoos in Brazil and the United States. The homeland of this species of bears is South America.
In many regions, these
animals are listed in the Red Book. The bald bear (photo) looks, of course, creepy. Some call these animals werewolves, which began to turn into humans. Will vets be able to help them until no one knows. Cases have been recorded when such animals in zoos survived to twenty-five years.
What does a bear eat?
Spectacled bears of medium size - height at the withers up to 90 centimeters, length - 180 centimeters. Males are larger than females, their body weight reaches 150 kg, females - 70 kg. Features of this species have been studied very poorly. As a rule, a spectacled bear eats vegetation: roots, fruits and leaves. Animals in the northwestern part of the range prefer the fruits and leaves of young palm trees. Clubfoots easily climb thirty-meter palm trees, break branches on their top, and then eat them on the ground.
In semi-deserts, animals eat fruits and cacti. Spectacled bears can sometimes enjoy corn on the cob.
Also in the diet of animals include carrion and insects, deer and guanaco. They can lead an active life both day and night. Animal
puberty occurs at 24 months of age, but they begin to reproduce much later. On average, pregnancy lasts 250 days. Females, as a rule, give birth from one to three cubs. During the year, the cubs live with their mother. In natural conditions, animals live up to 20 years, in a zoo up to 30 years.