To celebrate Veterinary Appreciation Day on June 18, the San Francisco Zoo highlighted one such high maintenance patient: a black bear (Ursus americanus). “This past week, the team worked alongside carnivore staff to perform a general examination on 8-year-old black bear Valdez. CREDIT: San Francisco Zoo. CREDIT: San Francisco Zoo. Valdez arrived at the San Francisco Zoo in 2017, after he and another orphaned bear cub named Juneau were found abandoned and malnourished in Alaska.