Tuesday March 22 2011 THE TIMES
You can always rely on the anti-zoo faction never to let reality spoil a good quote. "Knut's short and distressed life shows us again that polar bears do not belong in zoos," claimed Wolfgang Apel, of the German animal protection association.
It doesn't matter that a formal investigation into what caused Berlin Zoo's most famous animal to die at the weekend has not yet gathered the facts, let alone reported them; the anti-zoo brigade just know that keeping polar bears in captivity is wrong. But their views are as groundless as they are antiquated.
In the mid-1980s, the polar bear became the poster child for those who believed that zoos were outdated. And given what we now know of the species' needs, the polar bear enclosures of that time were woefully inadequate: they did lead to unnecessary mental and physical suffering. But over the next 20 years, all of our zoos bowed to that justified criticism and phased the species out of their collections, with a single exception.
Mercedes was the last polar bear in the British Isles to live in an old-style zoo. But she now resides at the Highland Wildlife Park with a younger male, Walker, in an area that is vast (five acres) compared with the barren, tiny, concrete pits that used to be found in most zoos. Forward-thinking zoological institutions have learnt from both zoo-based and field research and designed large, natural and complex enclosures. These certainly appear to satisfy the animals.
But as important as meeting the needs of individual polar bears, we have a responsibility to the species. The impact of climate change is most acute at the poles. The shortening of the polar ice season is causing polar bear populations to decline; the bears need the ice as a platform for hunting seals.
The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recognises that well-cared for bears within reputable zoos have an important conservation role to play. First, they raise awareness of the threat to bears in their natural habitat. But they could also play a more direct role in saving the species. The few populations that survive in the wild may need to be added to from those in captivity to avoid them becoming dangerously inbred. Without captive bears we would have a reduced number of options for future conservation efforts.
It is frustrating that the anti-zoo elements are unwilling to recognise the sea-change in attitude within zoos and among conservationists. Those who work in zoos have moved on. It's time that our critics caught up.
Douglas Richardson is the animal collection manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
