May 21, 2023
Cape May County Park/Zoo/Facebook
Cape May County Park & Zoo has welcomed its first spectacled bear, a 17-year-old female named Billie Jean.
Visitors to the Jersey Shore this summer may want to make a pit stop to say hello to a huge new addition to Cape May County Park & Zoo.
The zoo has welcomed its first spectacled bear, a 17-year-old female named Billie Jean who arrived from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. earlier this month.
MORE: Cape May Zoo welcomes baby ring-tailed lemur
Spectacled bears, also known as Andean bears, are South America's only bears.
As their name suggests, spectacled bears have cream-colored "spectacles" of fur encircling their eyes. Spectacled bears grow to five or six feet long, with males weighing up to 340 pounds and females weighing up to 180 pounds.
Spectacled bears usually live to be 20 years old in captivity. Their population is considered highly endangered in the wild due to habitat fragmentation.
Through the years Billie Jean has been part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan Program, helping to ensure the continuance of the spectacled bear population, and she has come to the Jersey Shore to relax after all her hard work.
"Spectacled Bear populations in the wild are threatened and declining," Dr. Alexander Ernst, Associate Veterinarian at the zoo, said in a release. "(Billie Jean) has successfully raised many cubs that, one day, may be important for the survival of this species in the wild. But her reproductive years are now behind her and she came to Cape May County to retire with us."
Zoo guests can visit Billie Jean in the Bear habitat in the zoo's South American section, adjacent to the Capybara habitat.
The Park & Zoo, located at 707 US-9 North in Cape May Court House, is free to enter and is open every day. The County Parks are open from 7 a.m. until dusk, and the Zoo is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
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