The Newest, Cutest Baby Animals from the World's Zoos & Aquariums
National Zoo's proud Mama Bear Billie-Jean has her paws full. Her two new bouncing bundles of joy are keeping themselves and her very busy. Also known as Spectacled Bears, this species is threatened in the wild due to habitat loss, hunting, and poaching.
Photo Credits: Mehgan Murphy / National
Zoo
Ah, the chores of being a mama bear.
What a proud mama! The cubs look thrilled, too!
I thought it was important to point out that these precious bears, along with moon bears and others, are used to produce bear bile in China for traditional medicine practices. They are kept cooped up in small cages and hooked to machines to extract the bile from their livers. Please see this website for more information:
http://www.animalsasia.org/
Such a lovely and happy family!
Anne, these are Andean bears from South America, so I doubt they are used in Chinese medicine. But of course their Asian relatives are a different story.
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