European Brown Bear Exhibit at Whipsnade 08/05/11

European Brown Bear Exhibit at Whipsnade 08/05/11
09-05-2011

One corner of probably the best bear exhibit in England*, and one of the oldest too.


*I haven\'t seen Highland\'s yet, so I\'m holding off on the UK title! The English competition would be Chester and Woburn.

09-05-2011

Still very nice. Lush!

09-05-2011

Yeah it's big and very impressive, but does anyone else have a thing about nettles in enclosures?
I hate to see them, very few animals will eat them or even go near them (unless you are a goat), so they take up valuable space and dont look good.

09-05-2011

I have seen an old Whipsnade postcard(1930's era) of a Brown Bear crossing a log in the same place over the pool in this enclosure.

10-05-2011

I’d go further and say it is probably the best bear exhibit I’ve seen anywhere.

I’ve got this postcard; it is from the 1930s. There are also postcards from this era depicting other species of bear in this enclosure.

10-05-2011

I have the one of the 2 Sloth Bears fighting/sparring- I wonder if they were in here at the time? There's also one of a Himalayan bear on a tree platform/nest -in here too maybe?

Its a little ironic that when the ZSL Spectacled Bears were moved to Whipsnade they were kept in really small accomodation not far from this enclosure.

10-05-2011

Yes, I have these postcards too and I believe that they were in this enclosure.


Agreed. When the spectacled bears were moved from London to Whipsnade, the original plan was to keep them in this enclosure; I don’t know why it didn’t happen. Whipsnade is definitely my favourite UK zoo, but the old spectacled bear accommodation was one of the worst Whipsnade exhibits.

10-05-2011

Once again I must agree on both points!

10-05-2011

It is interesting that some Brits are ranking this as a truly terrific exhibit, and I've always been impressed from the many photos that I've seen over the years. In North America many of the great bear habitats feature either underwater viewing or are multi-acre enclosures. Woodland Park and Minnesota both have amazing grizzly bear exhibits that are naturalistic and have underwater viewing, while Vancouver, Northwest Trek, Zoo Montana and other zoos have grizzly enclosures that are 1-2 acres in size. There are also probably 20 polar bear enclosures in North American zoos that have underwater viewing, but of course those bears are regarded as semi-aquatic mammals. What is the size of the Whipsnade brown bear exhibit? Is there more than one unobstructed overlook or any viewing areas (like glass windows) besides the metal fencing?

10-05-2011

The main viewing is from the raised walkway from where this photo was taken; there is also a small viewing window added in recent years to the fence you see here (the viewing are is just out of frame to the right).

I honestly don't ever remember seeing a brown bear exhibit with underwater viewing - only for Polars.

This exhibit is full of dense foliage and must be around an acre, I'd say - it's hard to judge as it's impossible to see the back from most angles!

EDIT: had a look on Google maps and I'd say the exhibit was approx 80m x 80m, making it around about 1.5 acres.

10-05-2011

@Maguari: thanks for the information on what is surely a terrific brown bear exhibit. With your 200 or so zoos that you've visited I'm a little shocked that you've never seen brown bears featured in a zoo habitat with underwater viewing, and like the case with hippos I find that it really elevates the quality of an enclosure from a public perspective. In the United States I can think of 5 zoos that feature grizzlies in that fashion (Woodland Park, Minnesota, Columbus, Louisville and Memphis - not 100% sure about Memphis) but I do realize that it must cost those zoos a small fortune to build bear exhibits in the first place let alone with underwater viewing areas. However, major American zoos often can spend $5-15 million on something like a new entrance so with taxpayer support things are different in the United States.

The zoos and the year that the exhibits were built:

Woodland Park (1994)
Minnesota (2008)
Columbus (2010)
Memphis (2010)
Louisville (2011) - grizzlies to be rotated with polar bears

10-05-2011

Just did a quick count of the 26 zoos with brown bears in Europe that I have seen and out of those just one of them (Tierpark Dählhölzli in Bern, Switzerland) had underwater viewing. I have not seen any underwater viewings for the other terrestrial bear species (american black, asian black, malayan, sloth, spectackled or giant panda).

For comparrison 8 out of the 16 european polar bear exhibits I have seen had underwater viewing.

__________________
I am Toddy, the zoo-enthusiast from Denmark!
Different zoos visited: 115
Favourite animals: Aardvarks and manatees.

10-05-2011

I think it's important to remember that we're not really talking about the same animals here. By virtue of geography, your experience of Ursus arctos exhibits is predominately based on Grizzlies, and mine on Europeans - I've only seen Grizzlies three times (at two zoos - in fact I've seen Kodiaks, Kamchatkans and Syrians each at more zoos than Grizzlies).

When I think of Grizzlies, the first thing that comes to mind is hours of nature documentary (not to mention John West canned fish adverts!) of them playing in rivers and catching migrating salmon.

I have never heard of the European subspecies doing the same; they may, but even if they do, the association isn't there in the minds of the public or those designing the exhibits. They enjoy a splash about in the water as do most bears, but I don't think they are perceived as having a particular association with water as Polars and Grizzlies are. And to be honest, I think that's because they don't have that association. After all, Chester's Spectacleds make good use of their pool, but I definitely wouldn't think it worth putting in underwater viewing.

Frankly, I think underwater viewing in a European Brown Bear exhibit would be just another window to clean. I don't think it would achieve much in general. Certainly these ain't no hippos!

10-05-2011

Just looked back at my photos from 1984 and the pool is the same, but a different log then to the one there now!

10-05-2011

Okay, so the log isn't the same one as in the 1930's postcard (or even 1984), but the fence railings definately are..