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snowleopard

Abandoned Polar Bear Enclosure

May 5th, 2012. This enclosure is not associated with the aquarium but is located via a pathway that is only a couple of minutes away. Stanley Park used to have a small zoo within its 1,000 acres, and it was closed in 1996. The last polar bear died in late 1997 and this bear pit has now sat empty for 15 years.
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snowleopard
May 5th, 2012. This enclosure is not associated with the aquarium but is located via a pathway that is only a couple of minutes away. Stanley Park used to have a small zoo within its 1,000 acres, and it was closed in 1996. The last polar bear died in late 1997 and this bear pit has now sat empty for 15 years.
 
DavidBrown
snowleopard said:
May 5th, 2012. This enclosure is not associated with the aquarium but is located via a pathway that is only a couple of minutes away. Stanley Park used to have a small zoo within its 1,000 acres, and it was closed in 1996. The last polar bear died in late 1997 and this bear pit has now sat empty for 15 years.
Click to expand...

Do you remember what species were in the old zoo? I visited it briefly in summer 1989 and was rather disappointed. I remember a penguin exhibit (Magellanic?) that was connected with a spider monkey cage; the monkeys could access some of the outdoor area that the penguins had as I recall. There was a red kangaroo exhibit, the polar bears, Wolf's guenons (first time I saw this species), and a small reptile house with four or five terrariums (some boids and frogs are all I remember). Was there anything else?

Do you know if there were ever any plans to turn it into a proper zoo? I remember that it seemed really ramshackle and thrown together. Really puzzling that it was next to a world-class aquarium.
 
snowleopard
The two polar bears were the main attraction (in horrific pits) but there were also penguins (Humboldt), seals, a few species of monkey, emus, buffalo, kangaroos, and a handful of reptiles and birds. You are definitely correct in saying that the whole place was a ramshackle affair and public outcry prompted its closure in the mid-1990's. For almost 15 years after the zoo closed there was a small farmyard section with goats, rabbits, guinea pigs and other barnyard creatures but that also closed down about two years ago.

Stanley Park itself is 1,000 acres in size (about the exact same size as Golden Gate Park in San Francisco) and up to 10 million people visit each year. Vancouver Aquarium gets close to 1 million annual visitors and it should blaze through that number once its $100 million overhaul is complete. However, I'm not sure if there are any plans to bulldoze the two abandoned bear pits that are just a short walk away from the world-class aquarium.
 
Arizona Docent
Is this all that remains of the old zoo, or are there other empty exhibits?

(And I hope they do not bulldoze it; makes for a fun reminder like the remains of the old Griffith Park Zoo in Los Angeles).
 
snowleopard
Arizona Docent said:
Is this all that remains of the old zoo, or are there other empty exhibits?QUOTE]

The two connecting bear grottoes are all that are left from the now defunct Stanley Park Zoo, and as much as I love zoo history I'd personally rather see the cement bunkers filled in and bulldozed into oblivion than continue to remain for all to see. The empty pool was painfully small for such a large species and the exhibit is more of a horror show these days than a part of zoo folklore. I enjoy seeing old exhibits incorporated into modern habitats but there have not been any polar bears in Vancouver for 17 years and I don't understand the purpose of the old pits. Tourists can see how inhumane the conditions once were but these grottoes are not even linked in any way to the world-class Vancouver Aquarium and thus they seem pointless.
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Arizona Docent
In my opinion there is a purpose to keeping examples of old bad exhibits to show how much zoos have improved.
 
snowleopard
@DavidBrown Still standing after 23 long, forlorn, abandoned years...right next door to the now closed (temporarily?) Vancouver Aquarium.
 

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