Polar Bear Exhibits

This has been quite an intriguing battle between Taccachantrieri and Jurek7, and the stereotypical behaviour of polar bears in zoos is obviously a hot topic. The fact remains that we have all seen many different species of bears pacing in many different zoos, and even the best, multi-million dollar exhibits haven't stopped such abhorrent activities. The solution is for zoos to get rid of concrete floors in bear enclosures, build extremely large exhibits, and incorporate dirt, sand, gravel, streams and all sorts of natural enrichment in the enclosures. Then build spacious night dens and allow the animals access to them 24/7. I'm planning on visiting the famous arctic exhibit at the Detroit Zoo this summer, as well as the fairly new Toledo Zoo complex, and maybe I'll get a glimpse of efficient, effective polar bear exhibits.
 
Unfortunately, once stereotypic behaviors become ingrained into animals its very hard to pull them out of it. We may have to wait for the next generation to know if many of these new designs have even worked for the species.
 
snowleopard said:
The fact remains that we have all seen many different species of bears pacing in many different zoos...
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absolutely true. and to be honest i think polar bears are no more susceptible to it than any other bear species. i'm yet to see any bears in a zoo that don't display such behavior.

snowleopard said:
The solution is for zoos to get rid of concrete floors in bear enclosures, build extremely large exhibits, and incorporate dirt, sand, gravel, streams and all sorts of natural enrichment in the enclosures. Then build spacious night dens and allow the animals access to them 24/7.
Click to expand...

thats probably the solution. i'm also yet to see a single decent bear exhibit in any zoo.
 
Woodland Park Zoo's is terrific. I don't know the size and number of animals, though.

Minnesota's will be smaller than we'd like when it opens this Spring with three young bears.
 
The Northern Trail exhibit at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo is indeed regarded as one of the greatest zoo exhibits of all time, and justifiably won the AZA Best Exhibit award when it opened in the mid-nineties. There is a tiny visitor building where one can sit and watch the two 850 pound grizzlies on one side and a pair of river otters on the other. There are some rocky mountain goats in an exhibit behind the otters, and the entire experience is amazing. The two brother grizzlies also have a spacious offsite exhibit that contains a lot of natural enrichment.

I was also lucky enough to see the spectacled bear/coati exhibit at Zurich Zoo in Switzerland, which incorporates a brilliant use of the natural hillside.

This summer I have plans to visit a number of zoos on a cross-Canada/U.S.A. road trip. Minnesota Zoo is a defiinite possibility (with its brand-new, $25-30 million Russian Coast exhibit) and the Detroit Zoo (regarded as having one of the world's greatest polar bear exhibits) is one that I've also pencilled in on my list of zoos/aquariums.
 
Unfortunately, even at the Detroit Zoo, in their new exhibit, the polar bears sometimes exhibit abnormal behavior as can be seen in the video below:

 
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What a depressing video!! Even in a multi-level, multi-million dollar, award-winning exhibit there is a serious case of polar bear psychosis. What is the answer? Maybe not to have bears in zoos, period.
 
The polar bear in the video I showed may be displaying such behavior as a result of its past environment. A couple of the polar bears at the Detroit Zoo were rescues, and I believe that one came from a circus. If that is the case it tells you just how damaging and chronic stereotypical behavior or its causes are :(! Wow, in either case I think I have depressed myself :(.


@Snowleopard You have not seen the brown bears at the Woodland Park Zoo exhibit stereotypical behavior, have you?
 
@Taccachantrieri: I've been to Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo over ten times, and have never once seen the grizzlies showing stereotypical behaviour. They live in a top-notch exhibit, not a "bear pit" that is common at many other zoos.

Seattle does also have sloth and sun bears displayed in old-style pit enclosures, and a couple of times I've seen a sun bear endlessly pacing. Bears in general are poorly held in captivity, but I'd agree with many researchers in saying that perhaps polar bears suffer more than the other bear species.
 
An interesting unscientific example I have is that when the last polar bear died at the Calgary Zoo they moved black bears into the same exhibit and I never saw them exhibit stereotypical behavior there. I actually thought it was a better exhibit in many respects than their previous enclosure that they were moved back into when the polar bear facility was demolished to make room for Destination Africa! My total observation period for the black bears in the old polar bear exhibit was in excess of ten hours and over 20 visits or so.
The polar bear individuals at the Calgary Zoo could have just been extremely sensitive individuals, but I doubt that adequately covers the differences in behavior I observed. The last polar bear was actually on Prozac, and still suffered.
All this being said I still do not think it is impossible to stop stereotypical behavior in polar bears.
The swimming pool the polar bears used to have at the Calgary Zoo compared to their Arctic Shore's planned enclosure is like the difference between a small backyard pool and over two Olympic sized swimming pools. The original planned saltwater volume at the Calgary Zoo's Arctic Shores facility would have been about ten times the volume of all the water at the Detroit Zoo's polar bear and seal exhibits.
 
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This is a link to the Rogers Williams Park Zoo, and its upcoming $35 million expansion. If you click on either "The North American Trail" or "Plains of Africa" captions then designs of the new exhibits will pop up on the screen. The polar bear exhibit is going to be 9 times larger than the previous one.
 
Roger Williams Park Zoo certainly needed to do something about its appalling polar bear exhibit. Their old exhibit is now a 1,000 square foot bald eagle exhibit and a visitor pathway alongside it. By my estimations the old polar bear exhibit could not have been much more than 2,000 square feet. The somewhat revolting condition of the old polar bears was also disturbing.

Check out the pear shaped body and patches of black skin underneath the hollow hair that has been rubbed off this polar bear at the RWPZ: Polar Bear Picture - Roger Williams Park Zoo Virtual Photo Tour - Providence Rhode Island
"Perfectly at home", are you kidding me :mad:?


I really do not think that the new planned polar bear exhibit is all that impressive :(. According to my estimations extrapolated off the North American map the new polar bear exhibit is about 20,000 to 25,000 square feet. Their pool is about 1,000 square feet in size if it is an average of 12.7 feet deep. The Arctic Shores pools for polar bears planned at the Calgary Zoo would have been more than 10 times as big and the exhibit would have included much more environmental enrichment. The RWPZ polar bear exhibit is also unimpressive compared to Detroit Zoo's polar bear exhibits.

I would not be surprised if the polar bears still suffered from stereotypical behavior and other problems at RWPZ's new exhibit.


On a more positive note I am quite surprised at all the renovations RWPZ can do with 35 million dollars. Besides the exhibits linked their plans also include a giant anteater exhibit, a veterinarian hospital, and a New England Trail with Children's Zoo.
 
Zoos with large polar bear exhibits often hold several bears, like Detroit and San Diego. Roger Williams only plans to hold a pair. How many does Calgary intend to hold? Unfortunately, large exhibits still correlate only with holding large amounts of individuals.
 
Good point okapikpr. One of the main problems with all of the countless polar bear and elephant exhibits being built is that the enclosures are doubled, tripled or quadrupled in size...BUT then the number of individuals being held often triples. The bottom line is that the animals in the exhibit don't really have much more personal space than what they originally were given.
 
Yes, I also do not like how most Zoos with larger exhibits just hold more individuals.
The bears will receive positive benefits in the form of the stimuli provided by changing environments if they are rotated between the exhibits. I forget whether or not the polar bears at the Detroit Zoo change exhibits, does anyone know the answer?
As far as the Calgary Zoo is concerned I really cannot conclusively say whether or not there will be multiple polar bear exhibits, or if the polar bears will be rotated, at this point.
 
The polar bears at the Detroit Zoo do rotate exhibits, and they have the seals alongside them to gaze at through the glass. At times, such as when the enclosures need to be scrubbed clean, the seals and polar bears are rotated and the bears are placed into the empty seal exhibit. This changing environment lends itself to a group of healthy, contented bears...in theory anyway.
 
I know that one of the Detroit polar bears is from a circus. I know the exhibit is massive, they get rotated etc, but it looks as thought it's made of concreat. I see no point in the masses of space if they can't dig or anything.
 
Exhibit

Here is a link to the awesome website Zoolex, and there are probably 100 exhibits featured from zoos all over the world. Anyway, this particular link contains a wealth of information on the Detroit Zoo's arctic exhibit. There are photos of the polar bears in large, grassy meadows surrounded by coniferous trees. I plan to hopefully visit the Detroit Zoo this summer, and it is still regarded as the premier polar bear exhibit around.

The 6 bears are allowed to rotate between exhibits, and the 2 males can choose which of the 4 females that they want to be around. The tundra section features grass, a cave, gravel, sand, etc...while the ice pack section does appear to be all concrete.
 
Only part of the Detroit Zoo exhibit is concrete. In that video I posted you can see gravel bed bands interspersed with "concrete ice". The polar bears tundra habitat is almost completely grass and other vegetation. There is also plenty of digging opportunities in both habitats.
 
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