Moving to the neighborhood – New home at the Allwetterzoo Münster
The preparations took a long time, but the actual move went very quickly: the two young sloth bears of the NaturZoo Rheine have moved to the Allwetterzoo Münster.
The bear brothers “Ganesh” and “Lippi” had been born in December 2019 at the NaturZoo. Mother “Devi” had raised them caringly, which unfortunately could not be followed throughout by zoo visitors due to the temporary closures of the zoo as a result of the Corona Pandemic in 2020. When it was time to wean the cubs from their mother – which she unmistakably expressed through defensive behavior toward her sons – the breeding program was unable to provide a place for the half-breeds. Finally, it was the Allwetterzoo that set up a new home for the sloth bears.
The move took place early Tuesday morning (April 25), quietly and unspectacularly, as desired and as it had been in preparation for several weeks. During this time, Ganesh and Lippi had become accustomed to the transport crates, into which they walked voluntarily and routinely, lured by food. They even felt so comfortable in the crates that they rather had to be persuaded to leave them again. Therefore, the trip to Münster was almost like being in a mobile home.
After just two hours, the bears had moved.
They were accompanied by Rheine’s zoo inspector Michael Rolfs and the curator of the all-weather zoo, Marcel Alaze. He himself was once an animal care trainee at Rheine, from where he moved to Leipzig Zoo, where he took over the breeding program for sloth bears. He continues to coordinate that after returning to Münsterland a few years ago. So the Rheiner sloth bears remain in good hands and will also find a very nice home in the expanded bear enclosure.