Polar Bear Exhibits

13-05-2008

Looks like fun, I suppose. Although given a pool filled with shrieking children or one with elderly polar bears, its a hard decision which is safer

13-05-2008

Why? Aquarium tanks cope well with sand and dirt in the tank. I guess it is a problem to design the filter system beforehand to cope with sand inside the tank.

13-05-2008

Well, I think it is a different proposition to have sand in an aquarium as opposed to unpredictable quantities of sand/dirt dumped into tank and bears churning it all up. Would an aquarium use sand for species that stir things up alot?

13-05-2008

I'd go for the polar bears. Definetly.

13-05-2008

Why not keep them in the same pool and provide valuable enrichment for both?

13-05-2008

Not much. It is limited by holding spaces for young. Polar bears even historically bred regularly. And wild bears are sometimes avialable as orphans or "problem bears".

Sure, I think even with current exhibits it is falling.

Not. Zoos wouldn't want to keep animals if they cannot do it well by their own stream. Visitors mostly overlook stereotyping animals. And animal libbers are very illogical and learn little from failures. Anyway - zoos success with apes and big cats changed them little.

13-05-2008

Two Far Side cartoons come to my mind.

One is "scorpion petting zoo" with crying children and the title "teaching children what nature is".

Second is about a family looking through the window at neighbors' house, which is overrun by wolves. Dad says to his son something like: "I'm sure you miss Browns, but they were stupid, ill and weak people, and thats why we have large predators".

13-05-2008

Dunno - they cope with sea mammals and huge fish... Rays and others must stir sand a lot?

13-05-2008

@Pygathrix: Wouldn't work. Polar Bears would be too scared to enter the pool.

Back to topic: The problem with stereotypical behaviour, especially with bears, is that an improvement of the husbandry will not result in presto! the bears shedding this bad habit. Some might lose it, some might show it less often, but quite a bunch of them keep on doing their "routine" in the new exhibit.

13-05-2008

Once established in a individual then it is unlikely for severe stereotypy to be shaken off despite an improvement in surroundings, but one would expect new births/arrivals not to develop it

13-05-2008

It is rather doubtful that individuals, espcially polar bears, with severe stereotypical behaviour will successfully breed and reproduce; You might end up with several "Knuts"...And then there's the (unfounded?) fear that new arrivals might also "learn" and develop stereotypies on their own. (the reason why it is hard for owners of crib biting horses to find a place for their horse...)

13-05-2008

The main problem is that there really aren't that many truly great polar bear exhibits in the world. This link is one that I posted much earlier on this thread, but the conditions in Japanese zoos are absolutely appalling. The 100+ photos show cramped, boxlike exhibits:

http://zoocheck.com/calgary/Japan%20...ort%202007.pdf

However, the 35 or so zoos in North America that contain polar bears offer the public many good enclosures, but arguably the Detroit Zoo is the only one that deserves to be recognized internationally. The Scandinavian Wildlife Park in Europe has a large, excellent polar bear enclosure, but the North American exhibits are almost all too small, packed with too much concrete, and lacking in enrichment. What is the point in around 10-15 zoos in North America currently building/renovating their polar bear exhibits if none of them are going to be truly outstanding? It's a waste of tens of millions of dollars, because in twenty years they will all be obsolete. We've all seen exhibits that were built in the 1980's or earlier, and perhaps only a third of them stand the test of time as representing the best in zoo construction.

13-05-2008

Hi Sun,

I doubt if polar bears learn behavioral patterns like this. In elephants it could be: I myself seen little calf imitating swaying mother. But between adult bears i don't think it will happen.

13-05-2008

Well, now they have example to learn from!

Japanese zoos are completely unknown to me. Any zoobeat member is in Japan? What are trends in zoo exhibits there? What is contact between Japanese and Western (perhaps mostly American West Coast) zoos?

13-05-2008

Thanks for the info Zooplantman!