Scandinavian Wildlife Park - Polar Bear Park

The huge Polar Bear Park in the Scandinavian Wildlife Park, Denmark. There is lots of land, a huge lake and an ice machine which daily produce 5 tons of ice for the bears. In the background is the amphitheatre where the daily feeding sessions take place. A fantastic enclosure!
August 2007

What an amazing, naturalistic habitat! I bet that it cost millions less than the concrete monstrosities that are found in many so-called "modern" zoos.

Constructing this enclosure was a matter of putting up som rather simple fence, using a BIG digging machine, bulding a small stable and putting down some pipes for the ice machine.

The last comment from Toddy is a very interesting one. I have thought about creating a thread on this theme in the forums. The tradition in Scandinavian wildlife parks and even in some zoos is simply to put a fence around an existing, authentic piece of nature and let the animals enjoy it. No "immersion", no costly fake rocks. The result is SO much more space for the animals at a much lower cost. As in the case of Borås Zoo in Sweden, this might mean a 7000 square meter big Swedish pine forest enclosure for African Wild Dogs - not exactly an authentical "African experience" for the visitor - but so good for the dogs!

The naturalistic type of exhibits are a hundred times better than the mockrock, crappy, multi-million dollar grottoes that are found at countless zoos. Simply erect an electrified fence around a heavily wooded few acres of land. Perfect!