European Brown Bear Exhibit at Whipsnade 08/05/11

@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

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 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!

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

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

I think for European, or certainly UK zoo-goers, a Bear enclosure like this one at Whipsnade is regarded as a highly natural/ great exhibit etc because overall we have no very grand exhibits such as outlined above in some of the USA Zoos. They are virtually nonexistent (except for Polar Bears) in our part of the world, probably because bears are not as emblamatic over here as in the states.

As you said, perception about how the Bears live comes into it too. European Bears don't normally fish rivers for salmon(except in places like the Russian Far East) and are more likely to be found rootling in woodlands or emerging to steal honey from farmers' hives in a meadow. So the Whipsnade exhibit, despite being simple and very old, still matches that vision. Also compared to many of the ghastly standardised concrete cells and pits that Brown Bears have often lived in, and still do, in many Europe zoos, it seems like a paradise. Of course even Whipsnade have been guilty of other 'bad' bear enclosures in the past- Spectacleds, Polars and Kodiaks.

Great discussion all around! Maguari & Pertinax: you guys have solid points about the type of bear that we are talking about as grizzlies are indeed emblematic within Canada and the United States and are very common in zoos over here. In terms of other bears places like Cleveland and San Diego have 5-6 species on show at one time, and many other zoos have multiple bear species. Grizzlies are often depicted in nature programs, or even on hunting shows, scooping salmon out of the water and there is definitely an association of those bears in water. Thus there are 5 American zoos with underwater viewing for grizzlies, and 4 out of 5 of those exhibits were built since 2008 so perhaps the trend is just heating up?

@Toddy: it is interesting that you mentioned that 8 out of 16 European polar bear exhibits that you have visited have underwater viewing, as glancing through a list of North American zoos I found it difficult to find any that did not have underwater viewing for polar bears. Of the 35 zoos in North America that have polar bears perhaps only 5 do not have underwater viewing. It seems to be standard exhibitry to have those habitats with viewing windows that allow visitors to look into their underwater world.

There are far more large-sized bear enclosures in continental Europe then Pertinaxs post suggests, even if many of them have been contructed with substancially smaller budgets then their counterparts in the USA (and thus with less artificial rocks/waterfalls/underwater viewing etc.).

If I look only at those in my thiny Czech rep., there are 5 bear zoo enclosures with over 1 acre. Most of them are between 2 and 3 acres. Interesting is, that 3 of those 5 ones were opened during last 2 years. That indicates that the trend on both sides of Atlantic is very similar.

Sorry, Toddy, missed this first time round - think I was typing my post when you posted this!

Thanks for confirming I'm not going mad and underwater Brown Bear viewing is indeed rare on this side of the Pond - I always worry after I've posted something like that that I'm going to be presented with a whole list of places I've forgotten!

In Europe as a whole it's still reasonably common for a zoo to have 2-3 bear species, though city zoos have tended to downsize.

In the UK, only Belfast (Sun and Spectacled) and Whipsnade (Sri Lankan Sloth and European Brown) have multiple bear species on show. Edinburgh theoretically will join the list soon if they do indeed get their Giant Pandas; they already have Sun Bears.