The future of most types of bear is threatened by expanding human activity. Increasing destruction of their habitats through urban sprawl, large-scale forest clearance and rising pollution levels are putting ever increasing pressure on bear populations.

Many species of bear now only live in small, widely scattered groups that are isolated from one another. There has already been a significant reduction in the numbers of six of the eight species of great bear.

Endangered bamboo eaters

The threat of extinction is especially great for the giant panda, because the individual populations have been isolated from one another through forest clearance, road construction, and the expansion in farmland and human settlement. A large-scale census in 1991 counted only 1,200 remaining animals. Apart from the disappearance of their habitat and consequently their source of food, the black and white bamboo lovers also have to contend with the threat posed by illegal poaching. Many pandas are condemned to death because a single skin fetches several thousand dollars in Asia.

The last remaining habitats for giant pandas are the impenetrable mountain forests of south-west China. Since 1992, when the Chinese government launched a national protection program together with the World Wildlife Fund, around 40 reservations have been set up. However, these will need to be better linked in the future. Only if action is taken soon to create forest corridors to link up the various isolated areas that exist today, will the future of the last remaining panda bears be secure.

Climate change endangers the King of the Arctic

Polar bear stocks remain stable. However, their future is by no means assured, since global warming is threatening their arctic habitat. In the past 20 years, the pack ice has spread out by about six percent. Thus, the polar bear’s habitat is literally melting under its paws. And with that its source of food, because only if it can hunt successfully for seals in summer can it store up an adequate layer of fat for the winter. If the ice masses melt, then the bears will have to retreat to the mainland where there is less food to be had. For the “King of the Arctic”, every week that it is forced to leave the ice early means 10 kilograms less weight. Now, not even half of all polar bear cubs survive the ever-lengthening ice-free period. If global warming continues at the same rate, the Arctic’s summer ice cover will disappear by 2080. The bears would then have to adapt to completely new living conditions or be condemned to extinction. Thus, climate protection is also polar bear protection.

A sanctuary for maltreated bears

One of the first sanctuaries for maltreated black and brown bears was set up on the site of a former zoo in the east German state of Thuringia at the end of the 1990s. With its hilly mixed forest and its ponds and springs, the approximately six hectares of land provides an ideal outdoor enclosure for bears. Former zoo animals, confiscated dancing bears, and “retired” circus bears have been finding refuge at the Worbis Bear Park since 1997, where they can finally live in an appropriate environment after years or even decades of painfully cramped conditions.