Polar Bear enclosure @ Bristol

• 

  Bwassa

• 8 Jul 2009

This is from an early 1970s guide book.

 

P

• P

  Pertinax

• 8 Jul 2009

An interesting photo. That would be Sebastian (at the back) and the two females near the water, Nina & Cynthia (Sebastian's mother)

 

J

• J

  James27

• 8 Jul 2009

Wow, blast from the past! Great picture though, always wondered what this looked like. Thanks

 

• 

  Bwassa

• 11 Jul 2009

You're welcome.

 

C

• C

  Cat-Man

• 18 Jul 2009

that is a brilliant enclosure!, well, for its day. people said chester had a brill polar bear enclosure for the time, so do bristol!, how much bigger is it???, beats the mappin by a mile!!!

 

J

• J

  James27

• 18 Jul 2009

It's bigger than the mappins, was probably state of the art back then. I remember seeing it when it housed tigers though, looked terrible for polar bears.

 

C

• C

  Cat-Man

• 18 Jul 2009

yes ash, by todays standard, but not for back them, and, i think tigers would looks worse, how did the tigers look???

 

• 

  Zambar

• 18 Jul 2009

According to my Dad, this enclosure was dreadful. About the size of an average back garden, and the amount of landspace been what you can see in the pic. The bears were constantly pacing.

 

C

• C

  Cat-Man

• 18 Jul 2009

so i presume he'd seen it??

 

J

• J

  James27

• 18 Jul 2009

I can't remember a lot about the tigers as I was in a pram at the time! But I remember that the enclosure was painted white and that one of the tigers was asleep on top of the steps leading into the pool. I seem to remember some sort of climbing platform made of wood too. But I can't remember the enclosure as a whole.