Copenhagen Zoo, March 1, 2009.
Picture 1 of 3.
The polar bear exhibit is from the beginning of the 1950s. Recently it has been somewhat improved by opening it up to one of the other old bear grottos (picture 2 in this series of 3). This second grotto contains some soft substrate at its lower level.
There are two young bears in this exhibit, one male and one female, and honestly they seem to be pretty well adjusted. No pacing and such. They are moving most of the time, spending lots of time in the water and generally playing with each other. The female acts a little bit dominant towards the male, not at all frightened by the fact that he is bigger.
Also sometimes a little bit of enrichment can go a long way. This afternoon when I visited the zoo the two bears were totally fascinated by a big piece of tree floating in the water (picture 3 of 5). They kept forcing it in between the cliffs with great force getting it stuck there. Then they spent even greater force to remove it, attacking it from under the water or from above clearly enjoying the game.
Anyway, forumster Toddy has shown us an amazing model of a new polar bear enclosure planned to built in the next few years. I am very much looking forward to this project:
http://www.zoochat.com/115/artic-ring-24057/
