An ugly cement pit for one of nature's most amazing mammals. I wonder how many more decades the zoo will have polar bears in this monstrosity? The tiny bathtub for the bears is a joke.
While I do agree that the several of the Bear grottos are in dire need of improvement, I must note that in between two of the cement grottos is one that is a meadow. One of the Polar Bears has access to it as she loves the grass. The other Polar Bear along with her roommate used to as well, but didn't find the meadow that exciting. That said, I strongly believe that the three cement grottos need vegetation. I don't think even with funds, demolishing these grottos to build new ones is the answer. Much like with the Chimp grottos. There would need to be enough funds to build new habitats in different places within the Zoo, otherwise there would be no place for the residents to live during construction. The Chimp grottos although small, at least have vegetation. I don't think it would be too costly to landscape the current cement Bear grottos, much like what was done many years ago to the Big Cat grottos. Why they don't is a management crime. All animals deserve to have vegetation under their feet.
I wonder if the same designers that did this exhibit also did it for the Buffalo Zoo bear grottoes. Very much similar in style. I can't wait when they finally get a remodel...how ever long that's going to be...
The bears do swim. They are often in the pool. The Keepers sometimes throw live fish in for them. The pool isn't as small as it looks in the photo, although not as big as would be ideal.
I don't think even with funds, demolishing these grottos to build new ones is the answer. Much like with the Chimp grottos. There would need to be enough funds to build new habitats in different places within the Zoo, otherwise there would be no place for the residents to live during construction.
If the SF Zoo wants to have polar bears into the 21st century a new exhibit is definitely needed. There are many polar bear exhibits across the country and likely somewhere could take these polar bears while a new exhibit was built. Most likely these bears will pass before any new exhibit was built so it wouldn't be an issue.
That's a very good question Ian. There is a past history of poisonous relationships between management and staff which I honestly don't know the root of. My impression is that maybe this is now getting much better.
At the deeper root the city has focused on rebuilding its art museums, the natural history museum/aquarium (California Academy of Sciences), and sports facilities (a new stadium for the baseball team and a perpetual quest to build a new football stadium for the 49ers which seems to never work out). The zoo has never gotten focused care as these institutions have, so that says a lot about the city's priorities.
There has been a long and seeming unending cascade of serious animal management problems: elephants died because they were in bad exhibits that never got replaced by modern exhibits as promised by management, koalas got stolen (KOALAS!), and most tragically a tiger got out and killed a teenager (who had been taunting it with his friends). This has given a very vocal and powerful animal rights lobby sway over decisions like shutting down the elephant program (which probably was the right thing to do given the zoo's seeming incompetence in never building the new elephant facilities that they had plans for).
Put in all together and you have a case study for how a potentially great zoo became mostly not great (or even good) over time.
