Calls to close 'death' zoo after skeletal bears seen begging for food

Warning - distressing images

Heartbreaking footage has showed skeletal bears begging for food from visitors at a so-called 'death zoo' in Indonesia.

The apparently starving sun bears, ribs clearly visible, were filmed standing scrabbling for scraps of junk food thrown into their enclosure at Bandung Zoo, West Java.

See also: Elephants file animal cruelty law suit against zoo

See also: Is this the world's saddest zoo?

The distressing clips were shot by investigators from a wildlife trade monitoring group as hundreds of thousands of people call for the zoo to be shut down.

A petition launched six months ago claims the bears are left so hungry they are forced to eat their own faeces and urged Indonesia's president to take action.

Last year images emerged of an elephant at the same zoo appearing to shed tears as she died in squalor with chains wrapped around her feet in a rusty cage.

The footage sparked outrage among animal rights campaigners, and the plight of the zoo's sun bears has reignited the anger.

The new videos, filmed last week, show the bears standing on their hind legs to beg for food as visitors throw in cake, sweets and crackers.

The bears are reportedly only fed when food parcels are delivered from New Zealand.

Gunung Gea, director of monitoring group Scorpion, told Daily Mail Australia: "When my team visited the zoo last week there was no grass or live trees on the floor of their cage.

"We saw a sun bear eating its own dung but when we contacted the zoo's officers they told us the bear was medicated and we weren't allowed to see it."

The petition, signed by more than 190,000 people, reads: "The Bandung Zoo has been coined Indonesia's 'death zoo' and must be shut down immediately.

"Tourists often report that the confined animals look emaciated and weak.

"The zoo is overcrowded and doesn't have a veterinarian on hand, so when animals fall ill they are left to suffer.

"These are not the only horrific events to have occurred within the zoo, and won't be the last."

The fate of Yani, the 34-year-old Sumatran elephant that died at the zoo last year, shocked animal lovers around the world.

She was pictured with sores across her body as she fought for life.

Sumatran elephants are critically endangered, with fewer than 2,800 of the species left in the wild.

Badung Zoo staff have declined to comment when contacted by the press.