Polar bears really should not be kept in Mexican zoos. Yet 4 mexican zoos have 1 single polar bear each. They are chapultepec, guadalajara, leon zoo and morelia. The exhibit in morelia is by far the worst, the other zoos have acceptable living quarters. Note, there are more polar bears in mexican zoos than in spanish zoos. All 4 bears are aged and moving them would be risky. Most bears arrived as international diplomatic gifts from the canadian government or alaska state agencies. Hopefully, this practice is over and polar bears will eventually be phased out of mexican zoos, which should concentrate more on endangered native species.
Nanooka died on August 25th, 2013 at 32 years of age. She was a diplomatic gift from the government of Canada. She was only a cub when she arrived at Chapultepec zoo. This leaves only 3 polar bears in mexico, at Morelia, Leon and Guadalajara, with one bruin each.It is not likely that Chapultepec will be able to replace Nanooka, since the days of polar bear diplomacy seemed to have finally ended.
