Why did Kolmarden stop having Polar Bears? I saw photos of the exhibit in the past and it seemed big enough, at least back then. And if any zoo has space for polar bears, its Kolmarden. When did they leave the zoo?
The polar bear enclosure was created in the middle of the 1960s, 3000 square meter big and centrered around a piece of genuine Swedish mountain/cliff. Later, it was not considered good enough but exactly for what reason I don´t know. Guessing the bears left about 8-10 years ago. Maybe Rillekolmård or some other Swedish forumster have the exact details?
Nowadays, Sweden´s only polar bears are kept in a close to 15 times bigger enclousure at Orsa Bear park.
The polar bear exhibit was basically a very large pit. It was all rock at the bottom with a, granted, large pool. However, the bears were completely encircled in by a tall rock wall and had no outlook to their surroundings at all.
The two last polar bears in Kolmården left for the Scandinavian Wild Animal Park in Denmark back in 2005 just prior to the opening of the Polar Bear Park in 2006.
