Polar bear enclosure

View of a part of the biggest of the two main enclosures for polar bears. The polar bears are the latest addition to the park, arrived the spring of 2009.

Polar World is the largest polar bear complex in the world, with a total enclosure area of 41.000 sq.meters. I loved it, only Polar World itself is reason enough to visit the park, especially in the winter.

Photo taken: 21 January 2010

Thanks for uploading so many gorgeous photos of polar bears and Amur tigers during the past week. Are there plans for another expansion of the park? How many species live there at the moment?

A wonderful way to exhibit Polar Bears.

Looks really nice!



Right now is a new construction Orsa Bear Park. It is a leopard world that will include four enclosures. The species will be the Persian Leopard, which will arrive already this summer. There will be a new breeding pair consisting of a Leopard from the Cologne zoo, one from Budapest. Two snow leopards will arrive in 2011.

The whole area will include the 6 500 square meters and is built next to The Tiger Mounitan.

Some additional info to what Kwambeze has already written.

Here is a simple sketch of the upcoming leopard exhibit:

Så här ska leoparderna bo i Orsa | Dala-Demokraten | www.dalademokraten.se

Some translations to the Swedish text in the sketch:

Utsiktsrum = viewing room (one for ech of the four enclosures. Glass windows that face the enclosures.)

Utsiktsplattform = viewing platform (dividing two of the four enclosures)

Projected building costs are around 10 million Swedish kronor, which roughly translates into 1,2 million US Dollars or so. Projected opening date, around the end of June. Artficial rocks will be built in each enclosure (highly unusual in Sweden….).

Snowleopard asked about the species exhibited at Orsa Bear Park. Well, they are easily counted:

Polar bear
Brown bear
A subspecies to brown bear, living in Siberia – I don´t know the English name
Wolf
Wolverine
Red Fox
Lynx
Amur Tiger
A kind of owl that I don´t know the English name of

That´s all! Persian and Snow leopard coming, as Kwambeze wrote. I read somewhere that the park wanted to add Kodiak bears to the collection.

Size of the park: 255 000 sq. meters or roughly 65 acres.
Finally, here is a nice map from the park´s web page (though not that descriptive, perhaps):

Karta Orsa Björnpark

Click on it and it enlarges.

Dan said:

A subspecies to brown bear, living in Siberia – I don´t know the English name

Click to expand...

Possibly Kamchatkan Bear (Ursus arctos beringianus)?

That is absolutely right!

They also have Eurasian Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo)

Dan said:

That is absolutely right!

Click to expand...

One of my favourites (but then, all bears are one of my favourites!).

This place looks great - have to add it to my wish list!