Sun bears at a zoo in Indonesia were so hungry that they have started begging visitors to throw food at them and in addition they have also started eating their feces. These shocking videos were shot by animal rights activists.
The videos were taken by the Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group and show extremely thin bears at a zoo in the city of Bandung, Indonesia.
Captive bears almost never beg for food, but as you can see in these videos the bears beg humans for pieces of fruit, and then beg visitors to throw some more.
Another video of a bear eating his own feces:
“The bears are kept in concrete cages without grass. There is nothing natural about it, it is very cruel”, said Scorpion chief investigator Maurizio Gucciano.
The organization has been sending researchers since the middle of last year to track the living conditions of the bears.
Gucciano added: “This is one of the worst zoos in Indonesia. It may be for the best if the place closes, before more animals die a painful and inevitable death”.
After the bears’ videos went viral, a petition was opened calling for the zoo to close, and over 1,000,000 people have already signed it. You can sign it too at this link.
Visitors to the site left angry comments on the zoo’s page on TripAdvisor, with many accusing them of neglecting the animals.
“I did not believe how disgusting and unclean the place was”, wrote one commenter. “The animals are in poor condition and no one cares for them”.
“Rusty cages, a dirty place and neglected animals. Some are very thin. It’s hell on earth for these animals”, wrote another respondent.
Sun bears live mainly in the forests of South Asia, and are considered vulnerable animals (not yet in immediate danger of extinction).