Bears at Flamingo Land. 1990

Polar Bears in the foreground, Brown or Grizzly Bears in the Background.

Oh dear...

What happened to their bears?

Did they just die out?

Yeah, I think so. They certainly had one remaining polar bear until fairly recently, and it lived in a very poor exhibit all that time. I don't know about the brown bears.

EDIT: In fact, I think at the time just before its death it was the only polar bear in England (bar the one or two in private collections)

This was a breeding pair, the female produced her last two cubs two years after this photo was taken. During that time, the male polar bear was housed with the European brown bear in the adjacent enclosure while the female reared her cubs.

Behind the rocky outcrop in the brown bear pen was another pool, when I saw these animals, it was full of bark chips, and the male polar bear was rolling around in it, rather than using the pool, on a hot day.

I understand that the cubs were sent to another country, and gradually the bears died out, until only the female was left. She died a few years ago.

Does anyone know what this exhibit is now used for, if anything?

I don't know, but I do wonder about that, will try and find out.

Best info I've found so far- as of 2007 the exhibit was empty, and covered in weeds.

looks extremely similar to mercedes old polar bear enclosure at endinburgh, r u sure u got the right picture.

i've watched Zoo vet at large were they do a lot at flamingo land, it was filmed at the time of there last bear, mandy the polar bear. it has been edited since this with the pool in the front with a small bit of land by the public bit for the keepers to acess. When i saw it on the T.V, the fence looked awfully low, was it safe?

The fence is just to separate the bears and to be honest, the cubs risked injury more from being attacked through the bars rather than the rather unfit adult male attempting to vault the fence. The back and side wall is very high, and the front and side have a deep concrete moat with an overhang fence.