Zoo camera captures birth of baby bear

A baby bear was born on Monday night. Zoo workers,who had been monitoring the mother through two CCTV cameras placed in her cave,said the mother is healthy.

This is the first time the zoo is monitoring an animal through a CCTV camera. The Himalayan bear goes into hibernation prior to birth and does not come out of the cave until the baby is 12 to 15 days old.

“Bears are ferocious animals and once they go into hibernation,it is difficult to find out when the baby is born. So, when we noticed the pregnancy this time,we decided to install CCTV cameras in her cave,” said R A Khan,curator (Education) at the Delhi Zoo.

The camera is connected to a screen placed in a small enclosure at the back of the cave,from where the workers monitor the mother and the baby. The black-and-white screen shows the mother and baby lying in the corner of the cave. The baby,of merely a few centimetres,sleeps near the mother’s belly.

“From time to time,when the baby is hungry,the mother nurses it,” said a worker.

The workers realised that the female was pregnant when she stopped eating about 24 days ago,as is normal among the species. The mother had behaved in the same manner when she gave birth to a baby five years ago in 2006.

“To make sure the baby is safe,we immediately removed the other four bears from the enclosure and placed them in another one a few metres away. Sometimes,bears fight among themselves and,at a time like this,the mother should be left alone,” said Khan.

The Himalayan black bears,also known as Moon Bears,were brought to the Delhi Zoo when it was set up in 1962. There were 10 such bears then,but due to natural deaths and transfers to other zoos,now there are five,excluding the newborn.

The zoo is trying to breed more such bears to increase their numbers. “Though these bears come from cold climes,they have now become habituated with Delhi’s weather. In fact,we even provide them heaters during the winter. While breeding them is a little difficult in Delhi’s extreme weather,the bears seem to have adapted well,” said another zoo official.

The zoo has no means to identify the gender of the baby till it is a few months old. Mother bears are known to be very protective of the cubs and do not allow any human contact.