Bear eats monkey in Amsterdam

Somebody tell Stephen Colbert!

Carnage at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park in Amsterdam when a sloth bear eats Barbary macaque in front of aghast visitors. [AP]

Comments

[cfrost]

Space being limited in zoos I guess you have to take some calculated risks when putting animals together. Sloth bears eat mostly termites, fruit, small vertebrates, and carrion, so perhaps the zookeepers thought an animal as large and agile as a macaque would be safe. On the other hand, sloth bears maul people in rural south Asia often enough that they are feared. Who knows what they were thinking. A shame to lose an animal as interesting and rare as a Barbary macaque.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Cfrost, you're always teaching me new and interesting things. Thanks.

[Julian Elson]

They should teach that bear that primates are not to be triffled with.

[cfrost]

So yeah, re: Barbary macaques (“apes”). I had wondered if the Winston Churchill sending macaques to Gibraltar during the dark hours of WW II story was true, and it turns out it is: http://www.iberianature.com/material/barbaryapes.html.

The link at that site to the article “Phylogeography of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) and the origin of the Gibraltar colony” unfortunately only gives most people the abstract. The complete text is interesting for two reasons: 1. As an illustration of the general wonderfullness of now being able to look at DNA directly and how that is transforming every kind of biology. 2. As a history of steady anthropogenic ecological degradation-

“The Maghreb has been continuously subjected to human influence for at least 4,000 years, and the most significant factor in extensive forest destruction has probably been overgrazing by goats. Two decades ago, the maximum population size of M. sylvanus was estimated at 20,000 individuals in a few refuges in Morocco and Algeria. Since then, the wild population has apparently decreased to approximately10,000. Remaining wild subpopulations are completely isolated in forest fragments separated by extensive intervening built-up areas, such that natural genetic exchange between them is ruled out. ...”

“ … There is reason to believe that the North African forest was heavily depleted in Roman times as a result of exportation of cedars and oaks. The Arab conquest and immigration of nomads intensified the destruction, with the result that by the end of the 17th century most of the lowlands had been cleared. The lack of forests probably presented an obstacle to migration, leading to the geographical separation of the mtDNA haplotypes that we see today.”

[Martin Wisse]

Not quite Amsterdam, it's aThough to be fair, actually in the east of the country. To be fair, what we call a country y'all int he US would call a "garden" or perhaps a "parking lot".

[letigre]

I question why the Sloth Bears were 'caged up' with a much smaller and rare species: the Barbary Macaque. It seems to me zoos have made some progress in the last few decades. But, apparently, they have a long way to go.

The Sloth Bear, also known as the Honey Bear or Lip Bear, is naturally a solitary omnivore except when mating or raising young. Put in an enclosure with obviously much smaller parameters than a Bear needs and making it share it with other Bears will affect the Bears behaviours.

Although an omnivore, The Sloth Bear is still a predator with built in predatorial instincts. Although it lives on mostly termites, various plants, and otehr small creatures, it does eat meat from larger animals (carrion) and occasionally hunts vertabrates (frogs). A bear that eats carrion does so because there is little energy output and high intake. But, when an animal such as a monkey is wounded or appears to be dead for a second, this will trigger what the bear now sees as a natural food source (high intake, low energy output, reduced risk).

So, when the rare Barbary Macaque monkey was shocked, fell down, and started to run away, the Sloth Bears naturally sensed a weakened prey item and their predatory instincts clicked on. It did'nt help that the Macaque did not have a safe place to escape to, either. The Sloth Bears knew their enclosure quiet well, knew there were limited places to 'hide', and sensed the prey felt vulnerable.

Most Bear species have similar diets and all bears are omnivores. Even Polar Bears eat seewead and berries and Giant Panda Bears eat rodents and Pikas. American Black Bears, Sun Bears, Spectacled Bears, Asiatic Black Bears, and Brown Bears are scavengers with dietary similarities to the Sloth Bear (albeit some more similar than others). Striped Hyenas, Brown Hyenas, Aardwolves, Maned Wolves, and Honey Badgers also share some of the same types of food sources with Sloth Bears. On the other hand, it would not be wise to put such predators with a macaque. Even though larger animals (such as a Macaque may not be typical prey items for the aforementioned predators, they could easily become so in a manmade, enclosed area with limited escape routes in case the potential prey was perceived to be injured (another manmade alteration which affects behaviour).

Changing the geography, the landscape, the environment will cause a change in the animals' behaviours (sometimes it is obvious, sometimes subtle, and other times undetected by human 'caretakers'). In the wild, when man's 'development' intrudes upon the habitat, either the animals adapt or they move away or they die.

The same goes when placing animals from their natural habitat and putting them in a limited space. Of course, the zookeepers figured this out and once they detected the change in behaviour, they moved the rest of the Macaque monkeys to another enclosure. I just hope they did'nt put them with the Aardwolves...

[Bear]

I see nothing here to get excited about nor is it exactly news that bears eat meat. We just did what any sort of bear does in a situation like this. Just because we did it in the open with a bunch of you hairless monkeys watching doesn't make you any better than us. As you know, we have access to the internet (ask Stephen Colbert) and we've been to http://www.meat.org where they show how cruelly you treat your food. To say the least, we watched the video in disgust. We don't ship our food animals half dead half alive through the country with broken bones and then whip the shit of it and shock it with electric prods into slaughter boxes before we maul and kill it. Compare that to the merciful quick killing of the monkey by those prisoners in the "Zoo", hairless monkey.

What I especially found cute was one primate here on the blog saying:

Posted by: Lindsay Beyerstein | May 16, 2006 at 11:25 AM

They should teach that bear that primates are not to be triffled with.

Lindsay, I think we should teach YOU that ursines are not to be trifled with. For example what you people call "bear hunting" is little more than OUTRIGHT ASASSINATION. It certainly has nothing to do with what we would consider 'hunting' and tell you what, I don't see where the pride and sense of achievement comes from when you shoot someone with a gun. If only you silly monkeys were fair enough to come at us with your fists and teeth, maybe even at a ratio (you're weak critters after all) of 10:1, now that would be fair. There'd be a lot of pride and honor to go around if you managed to kill one of us with your bare hands and teeths.

However this wont go on for much longer, Lindsay. Ask Colbert. He knows the truth but nobody takes him seriously. See you all on Mauling Day, monkeys.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

It's good to get an ursine perspective on this discussion.

You wouldn't happen to be one of those Grizzly-Polar-Ruxbin hybrid bears that Colbert predicted last week, would you?

[Julian Elson, Pugilistic Primate]

Bear, I am the one who said that primates are not to be trifled with, not Lindsay. Morever, I am not a hairless monkey. I am a short-haired ape.

As for fighting you hand-to-hand, unarmed, I have seen -- or rather heard of -- the results of that in the case of your kind's unprovoked and treacherous attack on Timothy Treadwell. I think not. I propose an alternative, perhaps: each of us will be given rifles. This should be an even match if you can figure out how to operate them without opposable thumbs. If you care to devise any other equipment for this battle, you are free to do so.

As for your empy threat, "Mauling Day," we shall see. When will this day come? Do you care to name a date? Or is this like the countless prophecies among us primates -- the second coming and the like?

[letigre]

Hey little Monkey, I mean Puuurrrrrrrrrrrr

At least you did'nt 'meat' up with any of my cousins. Lion, Leopard, Cougar, Cheetah, Jaguar, or tiger (that's me), would have played with you're monkey ars for a while. Tossing you up in the air, breaking a few bones, making you hobble around, letting the little ones attack you once you're down, and finally, after the long, tortuous ordeal is about to come to conclusion, eating you alive (private parts served first)...

Just watch out for the indigenous and survivalist hunters---when it comes to your kind, they are more serious than the trophy ones. I'm the one who's gotta look out for the big clumsy trophy hunters. But those who hunt and gather for a living, they do so for survival. Like me. The indigenous and likeminded at least use their guns for a quick kill, even quicker than I could do it. Aaahhhh, here comes a sapien right about now....gotta run. Cull the herd....or in this case, cull the troop. Wait a sec, that's a homo sapien coming my way---armed, but big, fat, slow, and he apparently can't see too well---must be Richard the weak-hearted Cheney. Grrrrrrr. Time to cull the crowd.

[mace]

The bear kills the monkey...the monkey kills the man...the man kills the bear...!! Sounds like a pretty fair fight to me. This world is basically just a food chain and hopefully you won’t find yourself on the losing side of it. However, I would like to think that a ZOO would have more sense then to have 3 flimsy strands of electrical wire running along side a stream. (The last time I checked water and electricity don’t mix any better then bears and monkeys!!) It’s a shame the little monkey guy had to die just because the ZOO KEEPER bought into the politically correct notion of “can’t we all just get along?”

[mace]

The bear kills the monkey...the monkey kills the man...the man kills the bear...!! Sounds like a pretty fair fight to me. This world is basically just a food chain and hopefully you won’t find yourself on the losing side of it. However, I would like to think that a ZOO would have more sense then to have 3 flimsy strands of electrical wire running along side a stream. (The last time I checked water and electricity don’t mix any better then bears and monkeys!!) It’s a shame the little monkey guy had to die just because the ZOO KEEPER bought into the politically correct notion of “can’t we all just get along?”

[Bear]

Julian,

First of all you're not short haired though I've seen some of you females do have wooly legs that qualify as some sort of substandard fur. Compared to us however you're all furless freaks. Even that stunted wolf abomination you've somehow managed to breed called "chihuahua" has more fur than you do (it also looks nicer than you apes do but let's leave the insults at that).

As far as Treadwell is concerned, he had it coming for a long time. We've been telling him time after time for years to get the hell out with his stupid cameras or finally start paying us royalties he owed us but he always came up with excuses. Since we obviously couldn't take him to your courts we took the matter in absentia to our Revolutionary Bear Liberation Committee where it was decided after some deliberation and back and forth to maul him to death.

So... you don't want to fight us in unarmed close combat? Not even at 10:1 ??! You know what, you're a bunch of cowards. Let's say 10:1, that's puny 20 fists, 20 weak boots and 10 sets of pitiful incisors against one bear, I think that sounds not only pretty fair to me, thinking it over I think it's stacked in your favor. As far as I know ganging up on an animal is how you brought larger prey down before you turned into assholes.

Finally you want to know when Mauling Day is. Mauling Day is when they've confiscated all your guns down to the last pistol. It's somewhere on the calendar and I'm sure to live to see that day.

Lindsay,

I don't get to watch Colbert very often anymore since I've been assigned to our secret subterranean base under the south pole but it's eerie how this monkey is usually on top of things. Sometimes makes me really wonder whether he has some sort of inside intelligence. If you have to know, I'm Ursus Arctos Sapiens and you're dinner :-)

[Marco Barelds]

I started this, unfortunatly I did a bad job making some money out of this poor monkeys death... Want to see the highres pics and read the whole story? Follow the link under my name.

Marco Barelds - photographer

[Slam Man]

Monkey got owned!