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Jordan-Jaguar97

Project Polar! at Yorkshire WP, 28/10/14

Currently housing one single male. The first complete enclosure was brilliant, the other two next to it are nearing completion. In total, four enclosures will be in place when completed.

Project Polar! at Yorkshire WP, 28/10/14
Jordan-Jaguar97, 28 Oct 2014
    • Jordan-Jaguar97
      Currently housing one single male. The first complete enclosure was brilliant, the other two next to it are nearing completion. In total, four enclosures will be in place when completed.
    • snowleopard
      The polar bear complex at Yorkshire Wildlife Park has been met with almost universal acclaim from zoo nerds and judging by the many photos that have been uploaded I would tend to agree that the exhibits are excellent. However, after having visited many American zoos in my lifetime I find it difficult to name even a solitary zoological institution that houses polar bears that lacks underwater viewing opportunities for the public. There are some zoos that don't have enormous windows to see the bears swimming (San Francisco is an example) but I'd estimate that 90% of all the zoos that I've seen polar bears at have all had underwater viewing. I would personally rather see more zoos copy the Yorkshire approach rather than having a mock-rock landscape, but I think that I nevertheless bring up a fair point. Is the lack of underwater viewing the only major flaw with the Yorkshire project and has there been any talk of creating that environment in the future? Rather than standing far away and staring at a bear over a fence, with underwater viewing (enormously expensive) a bear can be a couple of inches away from a visitor's face.
    • Panthera1981
      YWP seems to be THE place for big, sympathetic enclosure design-Whipsnade take note!

      Wonder what they could do if they ever got into elephants?
    • Maguari
      Quite apart from the cost, the practicalities of filtering a non-concrete lined pool the size of Yorkshire's (or Highland's) to leave the water clear enough for viewing would surely be prohibitive?

      In my experience clear underwater views usually mean smaller, shallower, more sterile pools. Fun though the underwater view can be, I think there's a very good case not to bother!

      I'd certainly rather an exhibit designed with no underwater viewing than an ill-considered attempt that just ends up being a view of green/muddy water!
    • Big Rob
      There is also the fact that majority of land at Y.W.P. is pretty low lying and especially the Project Polar area which is only a matter of 200 yards from a river. It would be totally impractical to dig down deep enough to make any sort of viewing area. With the volume of water that is in the lake the glass/Perspex would have to be massively thick. And the whole idea goes against what YWP do with all their exhibits. They don't go for fake rocks,apart from at the Meerkat area (and that's only so they can be heated) and the dens at the new African hunting dogs, they like large natural looking enclosures with room for the animals to show natural and fulfilled behaviour rather than smaller zoo's which try and cram as many animals in small areas thinking that's what people want to see.Admittedly the Guinea Baboons isn't very natural with wooden structures and ropes etc,but its very well done,and you cant really have trees etc in there as they are such distructive little creatures!;) I think from the great reviews and comments that these natural exhibits are best if it can be done and afforded.

      And as for Elephants,i would put money on them having them within 5 years. And I bet Gorillas/Orangutans even sooner.;) Watch this space!:)
    • sooty mangabey
      This is an interesting discussion. I certainly applaud the YWP for the speed with which it has developed, and for the ambition it is showing in all it does. However, I would argue the point that its exhibits are in any way "natural" looking - on the contrary, the fences and the associated stuff (buildings, barriers and so on) are more obvious here than at pretty much any zoo I can think of. And there appears to be little or no thought given to sight-lines, nor to what can be seen beyond an exhibit. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I actually quite like the functional approach that is being adopted here. But it isn't, in any way, natural looking (even if what is natural-looking is often, in reality, even more unnatural!).

      In some ways, the YWP reminds me a little of what Marwell was like in its first couple of decades. Their error - or one of them - was to try to build faux naturalistic enclosures in a zoo hitherto filled with the functional. Hence the catastrophe of, for example, the gibbon enclosure. I hope YWP won't make the same mistake, and will instead carry on doing what it currently does, pretty well.
    • Zooplantman
      It is not, I believe, the size of the enclosure alone, nor the lack of theming that makes us take notice of this project: it is the amount of water here for these marine mammals that is a-typical of polar bear exhibits.
    • Zooplantman
      Underwater viewing here would have quadrupled the cost of the project.
    • veeboy31
      Not sure about the under water viewing

      I would rather they put the money into the other three enclosures and build really awesome landscaped hills with waterfalls and streams.

      I hope we get to see a waterfall like in the tiger enclosure for the polar bears
    • LaughingDove
      This does indeed look to be an incredible exhibit for polar bears. It does not really look that natural in my opinion because of white bears on green grass but it is probably the best polar bear exhibit that I have seen.
      :)
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  • Category:
    Yorkshire Wildlife Park
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    Jordan-Jaguar97
    Date:
    28 Oct 2014
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    Comment Count:
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