Kid Territory: Critters: Miss Houdini
Miss Houdini has been a good mother to her cubs. Here, she comforts a cub that took an unexpected dip in the pool!
Willing to share, Miss Houdini carries her cub to her favorite resting spot—a hollowed-out tree stump. Mother bears often carry their cubs from one safe place to another, gripping the cub's neck gently with their teeth.
Can you see how the spectacled bear got its name? The white fur around its eyes reminded people of spectacles, or eyeglasses.
Zoo name:
Miss Houdini
Species:
Spectacled (or Andean) bear
Location: San Diego Zoo's Bear Canyon
Her story
When the San Diego Zoo's bus drivers pull up to the spectacled bear enclosure, the passengers admire Miss Houdini, then usually ask three questions: "How old is that baby bear? Why is she called a spectacled bear? And why is her name Miss Houdini?"
Well, Miss Houdini is no baby—she was born in 1986! She's the same age as her mate, Tommy, but at 170 pounds (77 kilograms) she's half his size. These South American bears are one of the smallest members of the bear family, and seem especially tiny compared to their Zoo neighbors, the grizzly bears. Spec bears (as the keepers call them) are excellent climbers, thanks to their small body size, sharp claws, bowed legs, and bare footpads. Their enclosure features a jungle gym of logs, including one big upright stump with a hollowed-out top that is Miss Houdini's favorite perch. She reclines in this log with her head thrown back and her legs hanging out, and when she gets excited she stands on the top and hops up and down.
The spectacled bears' enclosure also contains a pool, and sometimes the keepers put live goldfish into the water for the bears to catch. Miss Houdini doesn't like to go into the water, so she sits at the edge and waits for Tommy to drive the fish to the edge. Otherwise, keepers feed the bears separately, since Tommy would eat all the bear biscuits, veggies, bones, crickets, and worms if he could.
Names
When Miss Houdini is resting on her log, look at her face. She has yellowish circles of fur around her eyes, which really stand out against the dark fur and are the origin of the name spectacled bear (spectacles are another name for eyeglasses). The "spectacles" vary from bear to bear. Tommy's eye markings aren't nearly as distinct.
Now, why did we name her after a famous escape artist? When Miss Houdini first came to the Zoo, she was a youngster and even tinier than she is now. She found a very small opening, just big enough for a video camera (and way too small for a bear—or so we thought!) in a top corner of her bedroom. One morning, before the Zoo opened, she climbed out and ran down the sidewalk in front of her enclosure. Fortunately, she decided to jump into a pool two enclosures down. This pool holds otters nowadays, but back then it held Charlie, a 2,000 pound (907 kilogram) sea lion. Both animals were so astonished at this unexpected meeting that they just froze, which made it possible for the keepers to easily get Miss Houdini back to her own enclosure. She never escaped again, but also never lost her new nickname!
Where you can see her
Miss Houdini's enclosure is at the top of the Zoo's Bear Canyon, next to the lions and across from koalas.
More
Animal Bytes:
Andean (Spectacled) Bear, Brown Bear, Sea Lion, Lion, Koala
Job Profiles: Taking
Care of Animals
San Diego Zoo
