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Bears Eat Monkey at Amsterdam Zoo

by Karen Walrond (RSS feed) on May 17th 2006 at 1:09PM

I admit that I'm not a fan of the zoo. It bothers me to see these poor creatures penned up in small cages, kept from doing what would be more natural for them to do in the wild.

I guess, however, if I was in Amsterdam on Sunday, I wouldn't have that excuse.

From Yahoo!News: Bears caught, mauled, killed and ate a macaque monkey in front of horrified visitors on Sunday at Beekse Bergen Safari Park, in Amsterdam. According to the article, several Sloth bears chased the monkey into an electrified fence where it was stunned. The monkey then tried to run away, but a bear caught and mauled the poor animal.

A statement released by the park noted: "In an area where Sloth bears, great apes and Barbary macaques have coexisted peacefully for a long time, the harmony was temporarily disturbed during opening hours on Sunday... Of course the habitats here in the safari park are arranged in such a way that one animal almost never kills another, but they are and remain wild animals."

The park plans to move the remaining monkeys to another area.

Filed under: Stories, Europe, Netherlands

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

expatraveler May 17th 2006 3:52PM

I'd say that's one crazy occurance. If I remember correctly, you can actually get an up close encounter and glimpse of the monkeys at least. Just goes to show that bears are very wild, just as they are here in Vancouver. Bears are starting to hunt for food and come down from the mountains at this time of the year.

Neil May 17th 2006 6:15PM

"the harmony was temporarily disturbed"
I just love PR pieces.

Emma from Amsterdam May 17th 2006 6:47PM

Beekse Bergen Zoo is NOT in Amsterdam but in a rural area 150 km further south. Amsterdam Zoo (called "Artis": http://www.artis.nl) is a "classic zoo" in the middle of the city (they don't even have bears there: no room!). Beekse Bergen in the town of Hilvarenbeek is a so called "safari park", where animals are kept in sort of natural habitats (http://www.safaripark.nl/Home1/Een%20dagje%20Afrika/Autosafari.aspx) where you can drive your own car to see the animals. I guess the apes in Artis are, for once, better off on their own city rock, than their colleagues in Beekse Bergen :-)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! May 17th 2006 7:20PM

Good! Good! Good!

Animals doing what they "naturally" do best to get their food when they're hungy.

Stuart May 17th 2006 9:31PM

Wow those bears are like wild animals or something!

Donna May 18th 2006 7:36AM

Another reason that shows zoos are not natural.
Another reason to close the zoo.

Donna May 18th 2006 7:39AM

Another reason that shows zoos are not natural.
Another reason to
close the zoo.

Emma from Amsterdam May 18th 2006 8:33AM

And one more thing: Beekse Bergen is not your everyday zoo. They only "keep" bears that were abused and maltreated in circusses and on street markets in Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. They would never survive if you'd put them back in a "normal" forest. The Dutch government (and the safari park visitors) spend lots of money on these animals to provide them with the best "wild" life possible for the remaining years of their lives. And as I said: no bears in Amsterdam Zoo, which is more like a big farm with small(er) animals.