Polar Bears and Other Such Things

Over my winter break I went to the highland wildlife park. I saw a polar bear there and got closer than would be safely possible with one in the wild/a town in the Arctic circle. 

The bear who is currently there is called walker and his favourite toys are hard hats like this one

the bear that was there before was called Mercedes and she was a repeat offender in the act of coming into the town of Churchill in Canada where they have a polar bear prison

the prison operates in a three strike rule. if they catch a bear in town they knock it out and take it to their detention building where they are released when winter starts and they can hunt on the ice again.  if a bear is caught a third time they are put down as it means the prison is not working as a deterrent to them entering the human settlement.

Mercedes had been caught a third time in the town and either had to be put down or sent to a zoo. Edinburgh zoo had a lone male at the time and offered to take her as a companion for him.  The car company Mercedes sponsored her travel from Churchill in Canada to Edinburgh in Scotland so her name was changed from "number 39" to Mercedes.

Mercedes stayed in Edinburgh for many years before coming to the highland wildlife park in 2009. The first winter she was there she saw snow for the first time since coming to Scotland and was apparently very confused by it.

Unfortunately Mercedes had to be put down last year because she was in severe pain from arthritis but the other polar bear, walker who joined Mercedes from a zoo in the Netherlands in November 2010 is still up there but many visitors call him Mercedes because they don't know that it's not her.

The wildlife park has other animal such as tigers, wolves (who were displaced by Mercedes), Arctic foxes, wildcats, monkeys, beavers, a capercallie, three types of owl and red pandas (who were sooooo adorable!). 

Polar bears (Ursus Maritimus) are mostly found within the Arctic circle and are the only bears who will actively hunt and kill humans for food. This is one of the reasons they are so dangerous when they come into towns and villages.  People living in areas with polar bears all carry rifles when going anywhere near the edge of town and are completely prepared to shoot a bear.  The reason polar bears are endangered is not as a result of hunting but rather from a loss of habitat as they can only hunt when there is sea ice covering the majority of the Artic Ocean.


You can find out more about the Highland Wildlife Park here and more about polar bears in general here.

I feel really bad for not taking more pictures but the SD card in my camera was completely full up by the time I got round to the tigers.

I got most of my information from these sites:
BBC News article Mercedes death
STV News on the same story
Mercedes' Life story

Some nice pictures can be found at:
Guardian Newspaper website Walker Joining Mercedes
A Flikr users shots of Mercedes first snow