All of the dead logs are situated on a hill of cement in this old grotto, and does anyone know if this badly outdated exhibit (which actually looks better in this photo than in real life) was in existence when the zoo opened in July of 1959? Judging from a map from that year it appears that it is possible that this was part of a series of bear grottoes that held these species: Kodiak, Polar, Grizzly, Brown, Black Malayan Sun Bear and Russian. (Taken from the book "Packy & Me" by ex-Oregon Zoo vet Dr. Matthew Maberry).
When the animals were shifted from the original zoo site to the current one, many were placed in crates and the elephants were simply walked across to their new enclosure. Sadly the bears were simply shot, as was common practice at the time when dealing with potentially dangerous animals. Curiously enough, the book has a photo from the 1920's of one man and four women in with 4 fully grown black bears. The keepers would clean out the cages and feed the bears while being in the enclosure with quite a few of them at the same time.
All of the dead logs are situated on a hill of cement in this old grotto, and does anyone know if this badly outdated exhibit (which actually looks better in this photo than in real life) was in existence when the zoo opened in July of 1959? Judging from a map from that year it appears that it is possible that this was part of a series of bear grottoes that held these species: Kodiak, Polar, Grizzly, Brown, Black Malayan Sun Bear and Russian. (Taken from the book "Packy & Me" by ex-Oregon Zoo vet Dr. Matthew Maberry).
When the animals were shifted from the original zoo site to the current one, many were placed in crates and the elephants were simply walked across to their new enclosure. Sadly the bears were simply shot, as was common practice at the time when dealing with potentially dangerous animals. Curiously enough, the book has a photo from the 1920's of one man and four women in with 4 fully grown black bears. The keepers would clean out the cages and feed the bears while being in the enclosure with quite a few of them at the same time.
This grotto is a remnant of the "original" 1959 construction. It was significantly renovated in the 1980s, when he adjacent grottos were combined and coverted to the polar bear exhibits now slated for demolition. The use of the ugly concrete trees as anchors for lots of deadfall is admirable, as the added trunks and branches provide a lot of enrichment for the tree-climbing bears otherwise unavailable in the old concrete grotto.
