Highland Wildlife Park New Polar Bear Arrives This Week

This might only be the beginning of Polar Bears returning to the UK; CAPS and Born Free and the like cannot play the "Not-enough-space" here; HWP is huge and I look forward to see it next year.

Even if places like Bristol and London won't have space to take in this species again, Britain has loads of regional zoos with ample space available. Over in France are several regional zoos and safari parks with this species; I don't see why Britain would have to be different, provided the animals are available, which at least in America is a major problem. Some of the zoos with brand new and expensive exhibits over there found it very difficult to obtain as much as one animal.
 
I agree, I hope it will mark the beginning of a new era in polar bear husbandry in the United Kingdom.

I hope it will show that excellent enclosures can be built which have international acclaim and meet the needs of the animals without costing millions and millions of pounds to build.

Several facilites have the space available as has been discussed in the past on this website.
 
I really hope space isn't the only criteria allowing zoological collections to expand with this species in the UK again. Climate is a huge part of what makes HWP such an outstanding location for polar bears.
 
Quite of few out-of-town collections like Dartmoor and YWP could house polar bears in perfect themed habitats. :)
 
This really is one of my favourite pieces of zoo news all year. How long has it been since the UK Polar Bear population increased?
 
Javan Rhino said:
The facebook page shows that Walker arrived last night. :)
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There was an article about him (and Mercedes) on Five News a short time ago. It looked like Mercedes had a bit of a shock when she saw him through the fence for the first time :D
 
Good on the HWP for going into Polar bears if zoos like that can give them the space thats wonderful, if any other UK zoo can match what the HWP has given them it's great
 
When it comes to space, i think the only place that could match would be Whipsnade
 
How about Port Lympne? Or the safari parks which appear to ambitions to diversify their collections? Also Yorkshire Wildlife Park, maybe even Marwell?
 
kiang said:
When it comes to space, i think the only place that could match would be Whipsnade
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When I think back to how tiny the old Polar bear exhibit was at Whipsnade and how much room they could of given them then :eek:.

Also they were living on 100% concrete all the time with only a very tiny pool, glad to see those days in the UK are now gone for them the HWP is the way to go :cool:
 
What fantastic news for all us polar bear fans!
It would be nice to think that other collections would follow HWPs lead here. No doubt Walker's progress at the park will be followed keenly. Who knows, maybe one day, Whipsnade would again have polar bears, in an area that does justice to the species.
 
Mercedes seemed singularly unimpressed at her first sight of another bear for many years...
 
Interesting question.

Mercedes was imported from Churchill(Canada)- date? 1984?

Before her I can only think of the ones that were received at London circa 1960's- I believe at least one of their pairs were a gift from Russia.

Some of the earlier ones at the other zoos that kept them (Chester, Dudley, Flamingo Park, Chessington, Bristol, (London), Whipsnade, Edinburgh etc) were probably imported but then produced cubs at least occassionally, so there was no need for anywhere much to further import Polar Bears.
 
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