Bears' food sources depend on the breed

"How does a bear catch his food?," asked students in Ms. Janik's third-grade class at Big Hollow Elementary School in Ingleside.

Some bears eat salmon; some eat bugs. The ways bears catch their food depends on the kinds of food they eat.

Brookfield Zoo has three different species of bears: polar, grizzly and sloth. These large animals have very different appetites for different kinds of meals.

"Polar bears eat ringed seals," said Christy Mazrimas-Ott, senior keeper at the zoo. "They are the most carnivorous of all the bears. They stalk their prey or wait at a breathing hole for a seal to pop up. They take their big sickle-shaped claws and grab the seal."

Mazrimas-Ott will be returning shortly to Manitoba, Canada, as a volunteer with Polar Bears International, an organization that hopes to boost polar bear numbers by reversing melting ice patterns. The polar bears depend on ice to reach the seals they live off. The organization predicts that two-thirds of the polar bear population will disappear in only 40 years if warming trends continue. Easy steps that everyone can take to help polar bears are: Use energy-efficient CFL light bulbs, plant trees to reduce carbon dioxide and turn off lights when they're not needed.

Grizzly bears, whose homes are in the western United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, are omnivores, Mazrimas-Ott said. "In the fall they have a gorging and feeding frenzy," she said. "A costal grizzly can catch fish in its mouth or use its paws to dig for grubs." They might eat pine nuts, moths, flowers, and prey like bison, elk and smaller animals. Brookfield Zoo is supporting the efforts of Montana-based Vital Ground, an organization that preserves the grizzly's traditional roaming paths by asking private land owners to create easements so the bears can ramble unharmed.

Sloth bears, native to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, are insectivores, so most of their nutrition comes from bugs. "Their mouth is like a little vacuum," Mazrimas-Ott said. "Protruding lips blow debris away from a termite mound. Their nostrils close to prevent debris from going up. They will eat some fruit." These bears are about one third the size of grizzly and polar bears and have extremely long nails which give them a slothlike appearance. Unlike other bear species, sloth mothers carry their young on their backs.

Sloth bears also need protection. They are captured and used as performing bears, hunted for their organs which are used in medicinal potions, and, like most wild animals, effected by habitat loss.

Next year, the Brookfield Zoo will open the Great Bear Wilderness, a new exhibit that will combine a variety of animal species into single exhibits, like grizzlies, bald eagles and Mexican gray wolves that would coexist if residing in their natural habitats.

Learn about the zoo's Share the Care animal support program and other ways to help bears, like purchasing Grizzly Blend Coffee, by visiting the Brookfield Zoo Web site at czs.org.