What's a Polar Bear Doing in the Tropics? - Animal Concerns ...

CHAPTER 7GLOBAL PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT7.1 The phasing out of polar bears in captivityBecause of the innate difficulties of providing the spacious and stimulatingenvironment required by captive bears, many zoos, including those in theUnited Kingdom, no longer hold bears in their collections or have decidednot to replace current stock after the bears die. 86 This situation is perhapsmost apparent in the case of polar bears.Polar bears are one of the species for which the effects of captivity havebeen studied in detail. 36,37,38 The results of such studies have highlighted theubiquitous incidence of abnormal behaviour for polar bears in captivity andhighlighted the immense difficulties in meeting the needs of this species in acaptive environment.Even at progressive, professionally-managed zoos, there remain severeproblems with polar bears displaying abnormal behaviours. Regardless ofwhether or not enclosures fulfil the various recommendations for polarbears, stereotypic and abnormal behaviours still prevail. 38 In a study of polarbear behaviour in British zoos, it was found that the design or size ofenclosures did not have any significant influence on incidences ofstereotypic behaviour. 38 Even for the bears living in the largest enclosure inthis study, four different stereotypic behaviours and apathetic behaviourwere recorded. In another large enclosure which followed the layoutsuggested as being the most suitable for polar bears (level, with raised areasand containing few rocks), the stereotypic behaviours observed were asextreme as anywhere else. 38 These observations strongly indicate that, forpolar bears, simply changing the layout/design and increasing the size ofenclosure is still not enough to eradicate or even limit the occurrence ofabnormal behaviours.The question therefore remains; will there ever be an enclosure adequateenough to prevent or eliminate stereotypic behaviour in polar bears? Anevaluation of all of the evidence leads to a resounding no. Certainly at thispoint in time no one has come close to designing an enclosure that meetsthe needs of polar bears and, because of the nature of this species, it isdoubtful that anyone ever will.Zoos in the United Kingdom have been phasing out the keeping of polarbears in recent years. Since the 1990s, six zoos in the United Kingdom havestopped keeping polar bears.What’s a polar bear doing in the tropics?73www.acres.org.sg