@rillekolmard: I agree that this is a horrible looking polar bear exhibit, but there aren't that many decent ones worldwide. Of the literally 100 or so polar bear enclosures on the planet, how many are really world class? Probably less than 10.
By current standards it is not acceptable. But mind you that there are worse, sadly. Of the bad ones, this is mayby among the better ones, and I can bring up some good points about it, even if the bad ones certainly outdo the good ones. One is that the bears have actually good view from the top of the rocks over the audience (it is not a pit) and the pool is fairly deep, allowing for a nice dive on a hot Austrian summer day.
Well, it was build in the seventies, at that time it was one of the most modern polar bear enclosures. Next year Zoo Vienna is going to start building a new enclosure for polar bears, opening is planned for 2014. The polar bear cubs (25 months old now) will be moved to Zoo Hannover in a few weeks. Their Mum might go to Germany too.
I must object towards that. Already in 1965 (or thereabouts) a 3000 square meter polar bear enclosure was opened up in Sweden at Kolmården, centered around a genuine cliff:
You must bear in mind the circumstances at each zoo. If Tiergarten Schönbrunn (an old city zoo) had had the land available to Kolmarden (in the countryside) I'm sure they would have built just as good exhibit. Many buildings in the Tiergarten are preserved too.
This exhibit is certainly not state of the art in this day and age, but considering they were building worse exhibits around the same time all around the world (and sadly some zoos still are) I think this one is all right, but not much more than that.
Why I have so strange feeling, some people think if enclosure for mentioned species is not one of the 10 best enclosure in the world, then it is bad enclosure? Why I have so strange feeling some people think it is so simple to change it immediately?
Indeed cockroach, people do think that enclosures can simply be ripped down and replaced straight away. Not the case as not all zoos are loaded and it's not always viable to just replace and exhibit immediately.
