Polar Bear Exhibits

Just a note on relative exhibit sizes. Woodland Park's Brown Bear exhibit, widely viewed as among the best in the world, is only 12,000 square feet. Great use of hidden moats, borrowed views of landscape outside the exhibit etc. make it seem much larger. As always, it is not really the size that makes the space great--it's what is contained within the space. Varied terrain, digging substrate, a rushing stream, high vantage points, a sheltered cave, lots of dead wood to interact with and of course a deep pool with live fish make WPZ's Northern Trail great for bears and for viewers.

Roger Williams' planned exhibit, if indeed it is 25,000 square feet, will double Woodland Parks'. I sincerely doubt Calgary ever planned a 250,000 square foot exhibit, as suggested earlier. Maybe the whole Arctic complex, but in a relatively small urban zoo I cannot imagine devoting nearly 5 acres to one species, even one as large and as challenging as Polar bears (except of course elephants).
 
I think another great thing about Woodland Park Zoo's exhibit is that today it looks better than it did when it opened or even a few years after it opened! It is funny how this is something to be expected as landscapes mature, but that it is so rarely the case in most zoological exhibits.

I never said that the Calgary Zoo's polar bear exhibit would be 250,000 square feet, instead I was comparing pool sizes, which may not be as important to polar bears, but was nevertheless very interesting. One figure I heard was that the "Arctic Shores" at the Calgary Zoo was originally going to be 300,000 square feet of exhibit space. That would include visitor pathways, but most of those are tunnels through the exhibit that will not impact animal space too much. Some other visitor viewing will come from the entrance building whose size is not factored into the 300,000 square foot figure. A visitor amphitheater would take up a good slice of the 300,000 square feet. Regardless, it seems that the polar bear exhibit area(s) will be much bigger than 20,000 square feet.
 
I'm sure you are right that pool size is very important for polar bears. One of the most incredible pools I've seen is at Tierpark Berlin, with a vast fresh water pond easily the size of the entire WPZ bear exhibit! It wraps around a pretty large but standard rock pile land area, and is itself bounded by an ugly concrete wall with ominous metal spikes pointed in to keep the bears from scaling the wall. Originally, several bears were kept together here, but when I saw it there were "just" 3 animals. They were using the pool like mad, swimming and diving to their heart's content. No repetitive "laps" here, as in so many other zoos. Despite the grim East German architecture, it was one of the best polar bear experiences I've ever had at a zoo. I hope Calgary can create something on the same scale, but have the sense to make the rest of the exhibit tastefully naturalistic.
 
The Calgary Zoo still has a long way to go to develop that good taste. Check out my picture link about the African Savannah Building on the thread "Attractive Indoor Mammal Exhibits".

I should say though that parts of the Canadian Wilds have incredibly good taste and were no doubt developed by adhering to many of the great design principles of the better exhibits at Woodland Park Zoo. These better exhibits were developed about ten years ago and since then the Calgary Zoo has lost their way in many regards. I had always hoped that Destination Africa would be just like the Canadian Wilds, and as you can imagine was quite disappointed when it wasn't.
 
@Taccachantrieri: Calgary Zoo's Destination Africa building is definitely a hit-and-miss affair. The hippo exhibit is great for underwater viewing, but the amount of land on offer is relatively tiny by comparison. The gorilla enclosure is decent but not great, as they do spend the majority of their time inside. The giraffes have it worst of all, as the concrete background that they see for most of their lives is a far cry from a naturalistic exhibit. The amount of space allotted to them is also puny compared to many warmer climate zoos.
 
I wouldn't describe the giraffes background at the Calgary Zoo as concrete, but rather green garbage bags strung together by steel rods. In other words it is even uglier than concrete! The structure is actually one of the world's largest airplane hanger doors. During warm weather one entire side of the building completely opens up. The facility is much nicer at this time of the year as the building opens up considerably.
The outdoor giraffe enclosure is actually over three acres in size and probably one of the larger North American urban Zoo giraffe enclosures. There is even a giraffe overpass overhead of the visitor pathway. The problem is that the giraffes only spend part of the year outside.
 
Here is how we do polar bear enclosures in the Scandinavian Wild Animal Park in Denmark:

The Polar bear-park is the largest enclosure in the huge Scandinavian Wild Animal Park. 1/3 of the enclosure is covered by water, while the rest is dirt covered by tall grass. The only decorations are rocks and wooden trunks, and yo will find no artificial rocks here. When standing on the walkway, the visitors look out across the lake, with a hill in the background. Behind that hill is an amphitheatre with several benches for the visitors to sit when the polar bears are fed.

The keepers do a talk on the animals in Danish, while throwing various treats into the enclosure. This is a get way to see active animals. The only thing this enclosure is missing, is underwater viewing. Otherwise, it is probably the best polar bear enclosure I have seen. Not only is it huge, but it's a completely natural enviroment.

ImageShack - Hosting :: polarbearpark01pq1.jpg - The enclosure as seen from the wooden bridge
ImageShack - Hosting :: polarbearpark02pz9.jpg - A polar bear swimming
ImageShack - Hosting :: polarbearpark03tr9.jpg - The feeding area
ImageShack - Hosting :: polarbearpark04sa1.jpg - A polar bear enjoying the 5 tons of ice that is generated in their enclosure every night

The first photo gives you the best overview of the enclosure. You can see the amphitheatre in the background, from where the third photo (feeding time) is taken.

The enclosure is about twice the size of what can be seen in the first picture, stretching behind and to the left of the picture. The polar bears are viewed from a wooden bridge going right through the enclosure.
 
Toddy:

Fantastic

Looks like the best polar bear exhibit in the world. How many animals are housed there?
 
2.2 polar bears currently lives there. 1.1 is a mature brother and sister (10-12 years old) from Kolmården in Sweden, where the male was castrated. That's a very odd thing to do, considering how hard it is to aquire polar bears.

I'm not sure where the other 1.1 came from, but the female is too old to reproduce, and the male is a bit too young.

The young male has mated with the female from Kolmården, but is "shooting blanks" so far. It was hoped that he would be ready by this season, but sadly not. Though I am pretty sure that we will have little polar bear cubs by 2009 :).

The castrated male and old female will probably live out their lives in the park, just having a good time.

Here is the park's own page on the Polar Bear Park
 
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Here is an areal picture taken just before it opened in 2006:


And the same picture without my comments:
 
Wow, and I bet they had a few tractors, some carpenters with lumber and concrete mix, and some plumbing. The best exhibits almost always have the simplest design and construction. But thats the difference between natural and naturalistic exhibits. Great research Toddy! Thanks.
 
@Toddy: You have mentioned the Scandinavian Wild Animal Park a number of times now, and I must admit that they do indeed appear to have the world's best polar bear exhibit. The Detroit Zoo has the added bonus of underwater viewing and an overhead tunnel for swimming bears, as well as the added tension of having seals next door for company. But overall your photos are terrific examples of what can be done without piles of concrete or fake rock, and I agree that it's the best enclosure around for the massive arctic bears.

How many visitors does the park receive each year?
 
Here is the history of the Scandinavian Wild Animal Park. The park has three more "park enclosures" like the Polar Bear Park. These house wolves, brown bears and moose.

And their number of visitors:
1994 - 14.390
1995 - 24.188
1996 - 26.530
1997 - 23.614 (Changed the name from Deer World to Wild Animal Park)
1998 - 24.659
1999 - 29.931
2000 - 40.774 (The Wolf Park opens)
2001 - 42.520
2002 - 38.662
2003 - 115.038 (The Bear Park opens)
2004 - 75.292
2005 - 83.889
2006 - 149.394 (The Polar Bear Park and Moose Park opens)
2007 - 100.000
 
Fantastic pictures and info Toddy - love the shot of the bear swimming. Would love to see this park, although those four polar bears look like they're watching the crowd and thinking dinner time - ha!
 
Toddy, do any of these bears have any stereotype behaviour?
Just curious...
 
Not any that I have seen, but I would suspect that the old female may have some. Funny thing is that she is the love who loves the ice in their enclosure the most. Every morning she runs over to the ice machine, and lies flat on her belly on the 5 tons of ice.
 
The Polar Park in Edmonton (now closed) was a zoo that was formerly named the Alberta Game Farm. I went there many times as a child, have written all about it on its own thread, and have a very large and colourful guide book of the establishment.

Anyway, their polar bear exhibit had a 600,000 gallon pool which was pumped in from nearby Lost Lake, and the enclosure opened in 1975. They had two males and four females in an enormous exhibit. It seems to me that 600,000 gallons of water would make it one of the largest polar bear pools in the world, and I wonder if it has been bulldozed by now...
 
The Scandinavian Zoo polar exhibit does look great for the animals. The problem is that it cannot realistically be recreated at most Zoos.

This exhibit spans over six acres and has great surrounding scenery without the visual obstructions prevalent in most urban Zoos like roads, and edifices.

Less than one third of North American Zoos with over 300,000 visitors per year are over 100 acres in size, including undeveloped area. The vast majority of Zoos in NA with less visitors are much smaller, and often under 30 acres. There is no way the 62 acre Toledo Zoo, for instance, has the kind of space and surrounding sight-lines to replicate the polar bear exhibit at the Scandinavian Zoo. They are forced to create something different.


On another post Patrick spoke of the joy he got at experiencing the whole exhibit at his local Zoo, including the plants, the fake rockwork (in spite of his criticism), etc. I don't think you can get that much out of the Scandinavian polar bear exhibit. If it did not have any animals I would just pass through it totally uninterested.

As for its naturalness and immersion potential I suppose that comes partially from people who live in nice cities with decent vegetation and not the barren plains of Calgary. To me the Scandinavian Zoo exhibit is somewhat reminiscent of a ditch at the side of some highway here with some accompanying topography. Wow, I feel like I've been a little too harsh now :(...
 
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