Tremarctos ornatus, I think this is the male 'Spencer'. The female was older and very small; after she died, 'Spencer' was sent to Jersey to join their female.
Ouseley Way is now blocked off. It was a path which went past the brown bear enclosure, which could be viewed from both sides, not just the current path (which used to be known as Lady Yule's Walk). The were a number of relatively small wired enclosures holding leopards, pumas and servals (and possibly other small cats). The bears were in the last pen before you reached the penguins. Set back from the path were a number of newer and larger open-topped enclosures in a wooded area, which held the breeding group of cheetahs.
This not a very good image, but it shows the brick dens which were characteristic of the older enclosures. Scanned from a Kodachrome transparency.
@gentle lemur
Thanks for uploading the old Whipsnade photos which bring back many memories.
Incidentally, Whipsnade's spectacled bears came from London Zoo and were transferred to Whipsnade in 1968.
@pipaluk
Indeed jaguars were kept (and bred) in the cat cages along Ouseley Way; the jaguars were held there throughout the 1980s. Northern lynx were housed in these cages too for a while.
I do remember the jaguars and the lynx. I think the jags were in a cage with a rather low roof, but I wasn't sure if they arrived later as the notes I made on the map from my first visit don't mention them, but I saw so many new things in 1972 that some of the species I had seen before slipped my mind.
@gentle lemur Very interesting photo...The female's name was 'Nina'. I think this is Spencer. They also produced cubs I think but none survived. He sadly didn't breed at Jersey with Petronella(?) and there weren't any further cubs until after he died, but not absolutely sure on that.
