It's amazing to see so many European zoos build exhibits for polar bears that are completely different from the old bear grottoes from decades ago. The trend is obviously to construct bear habitats that are filled with trees, shrubs, grass and other natural substrates, and some of these new enclosures look as if they could hold a variety of bear species. Without a title on this photo, I would not have guessed the inhabitants of the exhibit! North American zoos are falling behind in terms of polar bear exhibits, as there aren't many zoos in North America with any kind of forested polar bear environment or even a big grassy area for the bears that is of significant size. Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg has an amazing polar bear complex, plus Columbus has a great exhibit for the bears as well. However, after that the choices are almost non-existent.
@snowleopard New well-planted enclosures are indeed very much the trend now and it is telling that this new extension was already criticized on a French forum as being too small (even though being bigger than most C-European enclosures). With Polar Bear husbandry changing so fast and the successes in the UK, it will be interesting what the lifetime of most German & Dutch enclosures will be, as they are generally much smaller, even though many were constructed over the past 15 years.
