Madrid American Black Bears

There are four enclosures of this style adjoining the bear house. The two larger ones are still in use and house five American Black and five Asiatic Black Bears. The two smaller enclosures on the far side of the building used to house Spectacled and Sun Bears. On this visit, these two were in the process of being knocked together. A smaller pit-stle enclosure on the side of the bulding houses a pair of Binturong.

Terrific, informative description of the photos. It appears that Madrid has spent millions on new exhibits, but still has plenty of old-style, concrete ones as well.

I'm not sure where your information comes from but aside from the new Panda enclosure and a new walk-through lemur exhibit, the zoo at Madrid is pretty much unchanged from its opening in 1972. Some of the concrete has been softened a little though in most cases this has only made an aesthetic difference. There is a lot of similarity with Muenster Zoo though the German collection has been making great strides to modernize as is the way with many German collections. The Mediterranean nations' mentality towards animals has not kept pace with other Western European countries though from my recent Spanish tour this does seem to be changing a little now.