Best Brown Bear enclosure in Benelux

[britishzoofan]

This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Brown Bears in Beneleux I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

If you want to vote for Bouillon or PA Reid please choose for the other option and state who you have voted for in the thread.

Monde Sauvage

Amersfoort

Bouillon (European)

Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality.

Pairi Daiza (European)

Grotte de Han (European)

Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality.

Olmense (European)

PA Reid (European)

Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality.

Zonnegloed (European)

Landgoed Hoenderdaell (European)

Dierenrijk (European)

Ouwehands (European)

 

[ShonenJake13]

I’m going to call it right now and say that the photo you’ve provided for Ouwehands barely even begins to give the scale of their enclosure. Their enclosure is five acres of woodland that they share with a few wolves, and houses nine bears at present although it has housed many more in the past. The Berenbos at Ouwehands is also the base for the charity Bears in Mind, who rescue a bunch of bears from abhorrent conditions all over Europe and bring them to that enclosure to rehabilitate them.
Pairi Daiza’s enclosures (of which you show the one that houses eight brown bears, there is another that keeps three brown bears mixed with American black bears) may be newer but Ouwehands has withstood the test of time, and is still far and away the best brown bear enclosure in the BeNeLux.

 

[snowleopard]

I visited 7 out of these 9 zoos last summer (missing out on Grotte de Han and Zonnegloed) and it's remarkable at how many bears are kept at some of the zoos. Ouwehands has 9 bears, Pairi Daiza has 11 brown bears, I think that Monde Sauvage, Olmense and Landgoed have at least 4 bears each, etc. It is in stark contrast to North American zoos, especially AZA facilities, which usually only have one or two bears together.

Probably the worst exhibit would be Amersfoort, even though it is great for young children with a little bridge that goes over part of the enclosure. Monde Sauvage is a big empty field, although during my visit the bears were extremely active. I can see why some individuals would vote for Pairi Daiza as the two brown bear exhibits there (especially the more forested one) are both excellent. Dierenrijk does well with its bears, as it does for almost all its mammals. Landgoed has a decent brown bear exhibit and Olmense's brown bear enclosure is seen via a long boardwalk and it is probably the best thing at that otherwise disappointing zoo.

My vote will go towards Ouwehands as the 5-acre habitat there really is superb and it's difficult for photos to do justice to such an impressive part of the zoo. Olmense would be #2 in my opinion, with Pairi Daiza #3.

 

[vogelcommando]

Also voted for Ouwehands, its large, has a lot of stucture, looks great and the animals have the possibility to socialize with other bears and wolves.

 

[lintworm]

It also cannot be highlighted enough that apart from having by far the largest enclosure, all bears in Ouwehands are rescues from mainly E Europe, such as former circus animals.

Maybe the few people who have voted for Pairi Daiza can explain their vote?

 

[ralph]

Pairi Daiza gets a honorable mention for visually prettiest enclosure, but I have to vote for Ouwehands for obvious reasons. Dierenrijk isn't bad either.

 

[Choco115]

Pairi daiza is a good second, but I vote for the huge enclosure in Ouwehands as well

 

[Blijdorpenaar]

Ouwehands, because of its scale and the cohabitation with the wolves. Dierenrijk, Olmense Zoo, Hoenderdaell and Pairi Daiza definitly deserve praise as well though.

 

[KevinB]

Grotte de Han (European)

Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality.

I am currently posting a photographic overview of the wildlife park on the Domain of the Caves of Han in the gallery. Of the European brown bear exhibits at Han(they actually have two) I have currently only posted an old photo (from 2008) of their original brown bear exhibit which has since been updated. They have also constructed a new second brown bear exhibit nearby recently. But both brown bear exhibits at Han are near the end of the trail so it will be a while - anywhere between several days and a few weeks - before I will be adding those images.

With regards to the quality of the exhibits: the old bear exhibit (which I have already posted an image of) wasn't great as it was relatively small and barren but the recent expansion has made it a better, but still not a great exhibit. The second newer bear exhibit is quite a bit better. It is basically a decently sized fenced section of forest and open rocky terrain with a large pool. This one I would call pretty good, but not as great as some of the contenders. I would probably rank it near Olmen, Pairi Daiza and Dierenrijk.

As far as my vote goes: in my opinion Ouwehands is the clear winner here, with the size and structure of their habitat and as they rescue bears from inhumane conditions, and try to manage them as naturally as possible. I think other exhibits like Pairi Daiza (where I like the brown/bear wolf exhibit shown here considerably more than the brown/black bear exhibit nearby), Olmen and Dierenrijk are also decent to good exhibits, but they are just not at level of Ouwehand's bear forest.

 

[Shirokuma]

There’s a video of the bear enclosure at Han originally posted by @Gorilla Gust

 

[britishzoofan]

Score update. Ouwehands currently posses an extremely large lead due to their excellent large wooded habitat. Pairi Daiza is currently the only other collection to have received votes so far.

 

[britishzoofan]

Sorry for the delay in the creation and updates of these polls I am extremely busy at the moment but hope to return to creating them regularly next week.

Poll closed. Congratulations to Ouwehands on winning the vote for Best Brown Bear enclosure in Benelux. This is the collections first poll win and was a fairly one sided victory over Pairi Daiza in second.

Ouwehands: 86.5%
Pairi Daiza: 13.5%