Interesting Brown Bear Exhibit

Taken 23rd November 2014
European brown bear exhibit that is not actually within the zoo but is on the nearest main road to the zoo, a few hundred meters from the zoo entrance. I don\'t remember seeing a main zoo exhibit actually outside a zoo before. Are there any other examples that you know of with exhibits outside the zoo?

This looks a very odd set up, and I would imagine it could be dangerous for the bears if not fetal, any fool can throw something injurious into the enclosure including poisoned bait if they had a mind.
Rather noisy for the bears too I'd have thought.

some examples of zoo enclosures before entering the actual zoo

Heidelberg has syrian brown bears + corsac fox
TP Berlin has American black bears
Zoo Dresden has coati
Rhenen has Ring tailed lemur & snowy owl
Planckendael has vultures

There will probably be many more

dean said:

Rather noisy for the bears too I'd have thought.

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Noise would definitely be an issue since the road in question is a main road into and out of town with a tram line, bus line and many people going past as there is also a major metro line.

LaughingDove said:

Noise would definitely be an issue since the road in question is a main road into and out of town with a tram line, bus line and many people going past as there is also a major metro line.

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Yes and I can imagine any drunken idiots could easily fall in too!! So yes poor bears indeed!!

Another point is.... that it appears the distance between the public barrier rail and the bears rock-work seems quite close ? Though the angle of the photo makes it a little deceptive perhaps. The rocks and barrier appear to be on a similar level too. ?

Nanook said:

Yes and I can imagine any drunken idiots could easily fall in too!! So yes poor bears indeed!!

Another point is.... that it appears the distance between the public barrier rail and the bears rock-work seems quite close ? Though the angle of the photo makes it a little deceptive perhaps. The rocks and barrier appear to be on a similar level too. ?

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If you look at where the curve is in the barrier and the exhibit you can get a good idea of distance between the barrier and rock-work and the height difference between the bottom rock areas and barrier is a couple of feet. What you may not be able to see in the picture is that the gap between the rock-work and barrier is a water-filled moat so any drunks that fall in would fall into freezing cold water then climb out and find themselves trapped with several European brown bears.

It is actually quite a distance from the zoo, whereas the exhibits lintworm mentioned are just on the zoos perimeter (the ones I know of anyway). It is an odd set up, but I think I read somewhere it was to be phased out as the bears in it are quite old.

I don't know how bad it would be for the bears, they are probably so used to the noise that it is irrelevant, and presumably all the comings and goings gives them some enrichment.

That is odd. Does anyone know the history? Is this one of Europe's historic bear pits that predates the zoo? Or did the zoo used to extend to here and get redeveloped into roads or other uses?

Arizona Docent said:

That is odd. Does anyone know the history? Is this one of Europe's historic bear pits that predates the zoo? Or did the zoo used to extend to here and get redeveloped into roads or other uses?

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The zoo and this bear exhibit are located in Praga Park, and the bear exhibit was built in 1952 (I don't think there is any historical significance). This was long after the Zoo opened in 1928 (although not so long after it reopened following WWII).

Maguari's photo here suggests it is used as advertising for the zoo: http://www.zoochat.com/273/roadside-brown-bear-enclosure-warsaw-zoo-34754/