A happy relaxed Mercedes

I put it to anyone who doesn\'t understand animals or zoos that this has to be a happy polar bear! The enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo is adequate for a polar bear but hen she moves to the zoo\'s sister park, Highland Wildlife Park, she\'ll be moving into sheer luxury!

Bless her. She looks content, tucking into her food. I'll miss her when she goes but I'm happy that she'll have a lovely new enclosure.

Couldnt she climb over that wall?

Dartboy said:

Couldnt she climb over that wall?

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The part she is on is rased and there is a much lower section to the enclosure all around the edge, the frone of which forms the pool. From the bottom then there is probably a 15 foot climb up a sheer vertical wall. Also, if yo look closely, you can see wires all around the perimeter which are electrified serving two purposes, the obvious one being to keep Mercedes in, but an additional deterrent to people trying to get in! In the summer when the bushes and trees are in full bloom and lots of green leaves the wires are virtually invisible!
I dod see her a couple of weeks ago step into the crateof her own accord with some food but she stepped out again. It looks like her moving crate is kept permanently open to her so she doesn't find it a frightening place to go. In time they shall close the door behind her and then open it again so that she'll understand it really isnt a scary place to be. Then come her move she won't need any kind of sedation. No stress on her or the keepers!

While I'm never happy when a major zoo stops exhibiting Polar Bears (one of my favourite animals) I'm glad that a) she'll be spending her retirement years in luxury up in the Scottish highlands and b) The RZSS has stated that they intend to continue with Polar Bear keeping (and with luck breeding) upon her death; thereby challenging Born Free, CAPS and the like, as in the case of Highland Wildlife Park they cannot use their long-time chief weapon against Polar Bear keeping, which is lack of space. Space is plentiful up in the Highlands.

Baldur said:

b) The RZSS has stated that they intend to continue with Polar Bear keeping (and with luck breeding) upon her death; thereby challenging Born Free, CAPS and the like, as in the case of Highland Wildlife Park they cannot use their long-time chief weapon against Polar Bear keeping, which is lack of space. Space is plentiful up in the Highlands.

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I fyou actually believe the likes of Born Free, Polar Bear numbers are rising in the wild. If you actually examine the data, this is true, in two regions only. The general Polar Bear population is on a major decline. Possibly within our lifetimes there could only be two populations left, North of Greenland and a corner in Canada. Many of these people won't actually visit zoos when commenting on the animal welfare. With good reason too. Zoos that would make them most welcome would be able to blow every argument out of the water!