What I wrote was 'have been' instead of 'are', which means that they have been sightest in the most remarkable of places but are not found there continously. I have seen a fair share of polar bear documents and pictures and there have even been pictures of them in woods and fields. Polar bears have no home, they do not make a territory, they simly wander around, all their life, wherever it may take them.
A polar bear who wandered outside of their normal range doesn't make this a polar bears home. There was a sighting of a wild flamingo in Kansas, but doesn't mean they live in the Great Plains. While its true that polar bears don't settle down in one area, they are usually found withing a certain range, normally near the ocean or sea, where mountains are rarly found.
A polar bear who wandered outside of their normal range doesn't make this a polar bears home. There was a sighting of a wild flamingo in Kansas, but doesn't mean they live in the Great Plains. While its true that polar bears don't settle down in one area, they are usually found withing a certain range, normally near the ocean or sea, where mountains are rarly found.
Within what you call 'normal range' can be all sorts of environments, covered with ice and not covered with ice. I don't think the sight of a stray Flamingo in Kansas is comparable with the chance of a Polar Bear in lets say Alaska wandering off into a woodland rather than staying out on the ice.
Don't take this too seriously but a part of our 'misunderstanding' D) may be that you grew up on the landlocked plains of Kansas while I come from the rugged Iceland where sea meets mountains. If you for instance search for the word 'Hornstrandir' in Google Pictures, you will get an idea of what I mean.
Hornstrandir are actually on the Icelandic Westfjords (check out a map of Iceland) which are just south of Greenland. They have commonly been the landing place for Polar Bears that have come on drifiting ice from Greenland. Here is for instance a picture of one shot there in 1963:
It was a large female which four egg collectors almost fell over on a very foggy June day. It was their luck that they had brought guns along (as they had planned to shoot seabirds for dinner that evening) and spotted the bear before she spotted them. My grandfather knew one of them as they came from the same town on the Westfjords; he said the guy would tell the story time and time again for years after and each time it would become more exaggerated!
I am going to side with Baldur on this one. Polar bears can be seen in many different types of terrain especially in Canada and Alaska during the summer where they also venture into the taiga up the hills.
Main criticism here: The bears have absolutely nothing to do. There is nothing in this enclosure which can be manipulated by the bears. This has 0 mental stimulation. What is wrong with giving leaf piles, rotten wood, straw, even boomer balls, sand or mulch. Some zoos are so afraid their polar bears might get dirty (or the pools - even worse) that they don't give anything to them. I personally hate car tires for bears, as they are often used as an excuse for otherwise non existing enrichment, but even a car tire would be better than nothing here ! From my point of view, this enclosure is really bad, but it doesn't have to be ...
The new exhibit at Hamburg will feature high climbing rocks. The director was at the habitat of the polar bears and looked at their natural behavior and they designed the exhibit like that. The bears (when they are not on the ice) often climb big rock strucktures in the wild.
To this exhibit: It is not the worst, the bears don't suffer here. Still it will be hugely extended the next years.
how common are polar bears seen in french zoo's. this kind of exhibit wouldn't be seen in the UK these days, they've been one of the most controversial animals in British zoo's (along with elephants and dolphins) and we are now down too 2 polar bears (1 in highland wildlife park + one in a private collection, and i've been lucky enough to see both) So is the situation much different across the channel?
how common are polar bears seen in french zoo's. this kind of exhibit wouldn't be seen in the UK these days, they've been one of the most controversial animals in British zoo's (along with elephants and dolphins) and we are now down too 2 polar bears (1 in highland wildlife park + one in a private collection, and i've been lucky enough to see both) So is the situation much different across the channel?
