[Still Waters]

www.telegraph.co.uk said:

Two Spectacled Bears called Dolores and Lolita have gone almost totally bald, and their keepers do not know why.

Staff at Leipzig Zoo in Germany have contacted their peers around the world to ask if any of them have seen the phenomenon and can offer a solution.

The balding bears have lost their fur as the freezing German winter approaches.

The usual appearances of the creatures has prompted widespread speculation in the country as to why it might have happened.

Read more...

[Cetacea]

Interesting, the bear park I did my thesis in had one bear that had a similar problem, not as extreme but his fur was quite light, he's got a little bare patch on his back where he scratches on trees a lot. They've done all sorts of tests on him but can't seem to figure it out, they think it may be a metabolic. In some cases stress is also a possible cause, a lot of animals lose fur or even self mutilate while stressed. But this sort of hair loss is rather extreme.


you can sort of see it there, the one sitting on the tree stump, it's obviously not by far as bad as with those two.

This post has been edited by Cetacea: 04 November 2009 - 10:28 AM