Pittsburgh Zoo - American black bear grotto

July 2008. Greenish water, solid concrete, tiny space, mould on walls...what a great exhibit!

Hopefully they will renovate this exhibit in the future.

This photo probably shows 90% of the entire enclosure, and this grotto really is overdue for a bulldozer.

Why doesn't the zoo tear their four bear grottoes down? What could possibly be the advantage of seeing bored bears in concrete wastelands? I would argue that the zoo would be better off without such enclosures, as the overall standard simply gets dragged down. These pits show that it is still okay to keep bears in substandard conditions, and that is just not cool in 2009.