This exhibit, which held two bears in the summer of 2014, will soon be empty. The zoo wishes to continue with its AZA accreditation and in order to do that one of the objectives was to enlarge and modernize the bear enclosure. There is more space than what can be seen here, along with a pool, but the vast majority of the exhibit is pure cement and that obviously does not meet modern standards in the USA. An elderly bear was euthanized in 2015 and the remaining individual will be sent away to a sanctuary in the near future.
Lake Superior Zoo is going to have a $15 million transformation and the facility will dramatically shrink in size. However, judging from the online Master Plan it seems as if the future exhibit called "Bear Country" will be a more modern habitat built on the same footprint as the enclosure in this photo.
