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Status of Asiatic Black
Bear and Bear Farming in China
Mr. Fan Zhiyong
CITES Management Authority of China
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2) Bear farming: Bear farming began
in China in 1984 and developed quickly from 1985 to 1990. Most of the farmed
bears are Asiatic black bears introduced from the wild in the period from 1985
to 1989 before the Wildlife Protection Law of China was promulgated. Meanwhile
researches on captive breeding, drainage technique, facilities, management, and
new prevention and treatment of disease were conducted in the bear farms, too.
2.1) The farming of bears in bear farms in 1998: The results of the
investigations on bear farms in 1992 and 1996 have been published (Fan and Song,
1997). A new survey was organized by the author again in July 1998. The results
show that there were 6,764 Asiatic black bears, 187 brown bears and 41 sun bears
in captivity in 1998. The 96.6% of farmed bears and all bears born in captivity
were Asiatic black bears (Table 2).
2.2) The development trend of bear farming in China: The following is to
compare the the results of the 1992 and 1996 surveys. The number of bear farms
is a lot reduced. The number of bears in farms is stable. More and more bears
are used as breeding groups. The bears from captive breeding increased from
1.63% in 1992 to 43.72% in 1998, including not only F1 or F2 but also a few of
F3 cubs now. The bears for milking bile, and the yield, the annual consumption,
and the price of bile powder are almost stable and some of them have marked a
little decreased. The large bear farms have increased and 27 bear farms with
more than 50 bears have more than 5,200 individuals, i.e. 74.51% of total
captive bears.
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