Here is a video of Auckland Zoo's polar bears in the 1960s. It shows three bears (possibly Brunus, Natuk and Natasha) exploring the rocks and jumping into the pool.
very good! great for people like me who were too young to have seen these guys in real life. hard to believe this was in akl
Sadly I never got to see it in real life either, I understand many people were against the exhibit for various reasons but it would have been cool to see polar bears at Auckland before the last two (Ingrid and Joachim) died in 1995. The Auckland Zoo book "Tiger by the Tail" shows the exhibit to be pristine and attractive but I have also seen other photos that show it looking dirty so I'm not sure what to believe! It certaintly would have been great to have seen in the 1960s when Chimo was a young cub.
Cheers, there's a picture of Wellington Zoo's polar bear exhibit at: Zoos and aquariums - Polar bear enclosure - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand I've never seen an enclosure like it!
I guess they were using their kiwi ingenuity to make the most of the space they had! As mentioned on the website, it is now home to the sun bears. It is amazing how much zoo enclosures have changed over the last 100 years, the enclosures that seem modern to us now may seem completely unsuitable in another 100 years!
the mention in the link about Wellington Zoo having sun bears exhibited there since the 1980s is wrong (unless it was the last year of that decade). I'm not sure when the sun bears first arrived but I was there in 1988 and the two bear enclosures held an American black bear in one and a trio of small-clawed otters in the other (prior to which it had held an Asiatic black bear). The enclosures had been modified slightly from the polar bear days, but were roughly similar (I think the concrete had been broken up a bit so there was space for some vegetation). There are photos of how they look now in the Zoochat gallery.
I remember seeing polar bears at Auckland years ago when I was a kid, back in the 60s. the way I remeber it, they had two big pens with large pools at the fornt and white painted rocks for them to climb on. Looking at those pens today, one up until recently was occupied by the cotten tops, they seem pathetically small to hold polar bears.
Honestly I dont even see how they fit so mayn of the huge bears into those tiny enclosures. I look at pictures and see that they have at leat double the space of the little excotton-top enclosure. I just cant picture it and i wasnt born until years after the bears left. Oh well. Its definately best we no longer have the bears at Akl.
Well i saw them and I cant picture it either, the present pen looks small enough for one bear to jump the entire width with a single leap. but it doesnt look as if the rear walls or the front wall has been moved, sure looks smaller though and not just because I am bigger.
Polar Bears at Auckland Zoo Video (1989) I found this video of Auckland Zoo’s polar bears in 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6r8Eh4nOS8 Auckland Zoo had three bears in 1989: Joachim (M) born 1962; arrived 1964; died 1995 Lisbeth (F) born 1962; arrived 1964; died 1990 Ingrid (F) born 1962; arrived 1984; died 1995 The video is of Joachim and one of the females. Note the size difference between the male and the female and the green tinge to the polar bear’s fur (caused by algae lodged in their transparent fur).