That poor bear. It seems pretty obvious to me that he's really bored and that this behavior is a compulsive way to try to release energy. Did you see how small his enclosure was? And not another bear in sight. They said his behavior stopped for a while and now it's back. I bet it stopped in winter when most bears hibernate and began again in Spring when most bears look for a mate. I enjoy staff too but it's a poor substitute for a mate. Still, I'm glad he has this way to entertain himself at least. Bears are very smart. I suspect if he saw a human doing a staff -- repeating the same trick over and over, slowly and with deliberation, he could pick up some more tricks. Perhaps contact stuff, since he doesn't have thumbs. Maybe over the shoulders and around the head. Perhaps between the legs. I bet he would also bond with the staff spinner. It would be cool if he had a friend -- human or bear. We all need friends.

He's going for a neck roll! He'll have contact down in a few months

that's fantastic
post it on non-fire videoz: tribes.tribe.net/nonfirevideoz