Yorkshire Wildlife Park YWP Project Polar

Thanks for the thread, Nisha. I'd say this project definitely deserves its own thread.

YWP made this announcement on their Facebook page:

Yorkshire Wildlife Park announces Project Polar Appeal.

The Sunday Mirror has launched a campaign by Yorkshire Wildlife Park to rescue a polar bear from soaring temperatures in a Mexican zoo. YWP has announced that the new development at the Park for next year will be one of the most significant yet. The award winning Park, with a reputation for conservation and welfare will be welcoming the world’s largest land carnivore – the Polar Bear.

YWP has a reputation of building large naturalistic reserves for its animals and has a reputation of caring and animal welfare, following the rescue of 13 lions out of a run down zoo in Romania.

Polar Bears were not in the Park’s original collection plan, but the Park Director’s first considered the project when they were approached to see if the Park would offer a home to a polar bear called Yupi who was being kept in a concrete enclosure in soaring temperatures in Morelia Zoo in Mexico. Since then YWP has been consulting with experts worldwide to bring Polar Bears back to England for the first time in over 20 years. The only other polar bears in a UK Zoo are at the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland.

Yupi has been at Morelia since 1992, after being captured in the wild as a cub. Her concrete enclosure has little shade, and little stimulation or enrichment. She has no choice or control over her environment. The soaring temperatures are difficult for a polar bear to deal with as they easily overheat. They have a layer of blubber to retain their body heat and underneath their white coat, their skin is black to absorb and retain heat. Campaigners have been trying to encourage the zoo to move her to a more appropriate home for many years. Yorkshire Wildlife Park has sent an expression of interest to the Zoo offering to rehome Yupi and is waiting for an official response.
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Mr.Weasel said:
Thanks for the thread, Nisha. I'd say this project definitely deserves it's own thread.

YWP made this announcement on their Facebook page:
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Excellent news, it is about time more Polar Bears were brought back into UK zoos - BUT they need to provide much better, more naturalistic habitats if possible, and it can be done, it just needs a good deal of money and a good enclosure design. Highland Wildlife Park have achieved it with a very simple design foot-print, admittedly their natural landscape and climate is very helpful of course. (Incidentally Heythrops enclosure is pretty good, it was designed by Jim Clubb himself, and considering its limitations of space, it is not too bad at all.)
But UK zoos need to move forward with their designs for Polar Bear exhibits rather than shy away from the challenge (the anti-zoo brigade would love that!!). The time has come, especially now more so than ever since the crisis the species is going face in the near future in the wild. If the Germans and Americans can provide better Polar Bear exhibits - than so can we, surely?
 
The "over 20 years" statement is of course nonsense. Even if the Heythrop animal is discounted as being only occasionally on view to the public, Flamingo Land's "Mandy" did not die until March 2004, with "Marcus" having died in November 1998.
 
I don't think a huge amount of money is needed to house polar bears - quite the opposite in fact. I'd much prefer a couple of Highland Wildlife Park inspired paddocks than expensive complex enclosures. And realistically, which collections would have the space and capacity? Whipsnade, as many have said, could have something amazing without too much complexity.

I wish Yorkshire Wildlife Park well with this. Along with the publicity surrounding Mercedes' retirement to Kingussie, this could result in an enormous change in perceptions of captive conditions for polar bears in the UK.
 
Shirokuma said:
I don't think a huge amount of money is needed to house polar bears - quite the opposite in fact. I'd much prefer a couple of Highland Wildlife Park inspired paddocks than expensive complex enclosures. And realistically, which collections would have the space and capacity? Whipsnade, as many have said, could have something amazing without too much complexity.

I wish Yorkshire Wildlife Park well with this. Along with the publicity surrounding Mercedes' retirement to Kingussie, this could result in an enormous change in perceptions of captive conditions for polar bears in the UK.
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Yes I agree about the Kingussie enclosure, but as I said, the existing, more natural terrain, has made it a great deal easier and, as you say, less costly. Whipsnade would probably be the next most ideal collection in terms of location, space etc.. , and I still think their very old Brown Bear enclosure is one of the best for the species in the UK. This kind of enclosure is the way forward for Polar Bear keeping in the UK. Those more "urban zoos" can no longer realistically provide the standard of enclosure required these days.
 
This is fantastic news!
But.....
What happens if the zoo in Mexico doesn't want to move the bear to the UK?
The impression I got from reading the articles is that YWP are looking at rescuing more than one bear?
I'm so glad another UK collection are actively looking to keep Polar Bears again (besides HWP).
It's been too long.......:D
 
In regards to the exhibit design and cost, the UKZooGuide posted about the story on facebook, and included this snippet:

Yorkshire Wildlife Park are constructing a state-of-the-art £750,000 15 acre polar bear reserve, featuring hills, lakes and arctic plants. It is hoped that the first stage of the development will be completed by March.
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Which doesn't sound like too much money, especially if they do rescue more than one bear. And the exhibit design (and size) sounds great.
 
15 acres is quite a respectable size, even for multiple enclosures. I wish YWP all the best with this venture and imagine the publicity generated by this new rescue will significantly boost attendance at the zoo.
 
zooboy28 said:
Yorkshire Wildlife Park are constructing a state-of-the-art £750,000 15 acre polar bear reserve, featuring hills, lakes and arctic plants. It is hoped that the first stage of the development will be completed by March
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How many acres is the polar bear enclosure at HWP? I read 4 acres on Google, but it can't be that small in comparison to YWP's 15 acres, surely? Especially considering it's meant to be the largest polar bear enclosure in Europe?
 
Mr.Weasel said:
How many acres is the polar bear enclosure at HWP? I read 4 acres on Google, but it can't be that small in comparison to YWP's 15 acres, surely? Especially considering it's meant to be the largest polar bear enclosure in Europe?
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According to the planning application, YWP are aiming for 4 enclosures, so that equates to 4 HWP sized enclosures.
 
It would be the largest polar bear enclosures in the world. Now is the largest in Orsa, Sweden, with 30,000 sqm. Kolind, Denmark, with 27,000 sqm.

Much too large for a single bear. I think it anticipates several bears. In Europe there are enough bears for YWP. In attitudes that are worse than Morelia.
 
Mr.Weasel said:
How many acres is the polar bear enclosure at HWP? I read 4 acres on Google, but it can't be that small in comparison to YWP's 15 acres, surely? Especially considering it's meant to be the largest polar bear enclosure in Europe?
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15 acres is certainly a very good size, even if that is divided into four enclosures, rescuing more than one bear seems more likely if they can, they certainly did that with the lions where several were re-homed of course. It would be more preferable in the long run for establishing Polar Bears at YWP properly, since "Yupi" will probably be beyond breeding capability at 22 years old now, she could at least live out her retirement.

Morelia Zoo`s former director, who was set against "Yupi" going anywhere else, died in 2012, now the assistant director now running the place is a little more open to discussion on the subject, but there has still been no final decision. Zoo Check Canada/UK and CATCA have been campaigning for a long time for her removal from Morelia Zoo with no luck so far.
 
While I am obviously delighted that polar bears will be returning to public view in England, there is something about this story that troubles me. The language deployed in relation to the zoo in Mexico, the apparent alliance with the likes of Zoo Check, and the proclaimed desire to "rescue" (some might describe this as "steal") these from another zoo leave a slightly queasy taste. If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon – I hope the YWP isn't eating with a devil in this case. How would we feel if the zoo of Mexico City launched a campaign to "rescue" the spectacled bears from the South Lakes Wildlife Park?
 
I'm pleased I am not the only person who is not keen on the use of the word "rescue". It does seem to be a favourite of the powers-that-be at the YWP though.
 
sooty mangabey said:
While I am obviously delighted that polar bears will be returning to public view in England, there is something about this story that troubles me. The language deployed in relation to the zoo in Mexico, the apparent alliance with the likes of Zoo Check, and the proclaimed desire to "rescue" (some might describe this as "steal") these from another zoo leave a slightly queasy taste. If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon – I hope the YWP isn't eating with a devil in this case. How would we feel if the zoo of Mexico City launched a campaign to "rescue" the spectacled bears from the South Lakes Wildlife Park?
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Yes, it's my only slight point of discomfort with YWP as well. A wild animal found injured or distressed is a 'rescue', or a captive animal that would otherwise be euthanised unnecessarily. This is not what I'd call a rescue.

YWP have shown they can make a lot of money and publicity out of these things, though, so it's easy to see why another would be appealing (and it would result in better welfare from the animal in question).

I suspect the 'rescue' angle is partly to deflect criticism from bodies like ZooCheck who worked so hard to all but rid British zoos of Polar Bears in the 1990s. And I suspect at least some of the bears at YWP will just be placed from the studbook in the normal way.
 
I have to say that Morelia certainly doesn't look like a slum zoo, although the Polar Bear facility seems pretty awful. The comments of somebody who's actually been there would be helpful in this regard. I also echo the comments made above on the return of Polar Bears to Whipsnade; I wish ZSL would make this a priority.
 
Maguari said:
And I suspect at least some of the bears at YWP will just be placed from the studbook in the normal way.
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That was my supposition too. If they have a number of Bears, some would just be surplus from other Zoos and acquired in the normal way, rather than 'rescued'- which as you said, is often a misnomer anyway- with all the attendant publicity, though they might also be coming from poorer to far superior accomodation at the same time..
 
Some artists impressions of the reserve are available on the Polar Project website:

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A world class 10 acre reserve will be created for the Polar Bears, which will be divided into four sections, each featuring landscaped hills, valleys and a main lake with streams, pools and waterfalls. The landscaping will mirror the Arctic Tundra with grass, herbs, shrubs and heathers. There will be rocky areas which will also provide shelter for the bears as well as their main house.

This naturalistic enclosure will help stimulate the natural behaviours such as swimming, roaming and foraging. The bears need the space to roam in a physically varied and stimulating complex environment and the staff will have a lot of training, support and facilities to create an enrichment programme to keep the polar bears stimulated to behave naturally. This will be one of the largest Polar bear reserves in the world.
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Read More:

Yorkshire Wildlife Park Foundation

Looks and sounds very impressive!
 
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