Which bear is that?

19/05/2016 in Highland Wildlife Park

Photo by Pat Riley.

Keepers at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park were recently shocked to discover a brown bear in the female polar bear’s enclosure. There was no sign of Victoria at all, and she seemed to have been replaced by a completely different species of bear all together. On closer inspection however keepers realised that the bear was indeed Victoria, but she was covered head to paw in mud, with not an inch of clean fur in sight!

The female bear is very playful and loves a good roll and tumble in her large, custom-built enclosure, which features a pond and soft areas of ground, as well as plenty of space for her to explore. It is completely separate to the male polar bears, which allows the Park to mimic the behaviour of polar bears in the wild who only come together to mate.

Vickie Larkin, Head Carnivore Keeper at RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, said: “The keepers had quite a good laugh when we discovered her; she’s generally always a bit muddy as she loves rolling about in the peat, but we have never seen her this muddy; she must have been having a ball tumbling around her enclosure. She soon cleaned off by taking a dip in her pool.”

In total, RZSS Highland Wildlife Park devotes more space to polar bears (over four hectares, or 10 acres, in total) than any other zoological institution in the world, and the successful work of the Park in enclosure design and development is being mirrored elsewhere.

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