UK’s Only Female Polar Bear to Arrive in Scotland

25/03/2015 in Highland Wildlife Park

The Highland Wildlife Park is delighted to welcome Victoria the female polar bear on Wednesday 25 March to join resident males Walker and Arktos, with the hope of hearing the pitter patter of polar bear cub paws in the future.

Victoria is arriving from Aalborg Zoo in Denmark, but was originally born on 12 December 1996 at Rostock Zoo in Germany, and will be the only female polar bear currently in the UK.

Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections for Highland Wildlife Park, said:

"We are delighted to welcome a female polar bear to the Highlands. Victoria will need to settle in, but visitors should be able to meet our new arrival in a couple of weeks. Her enclosure is completely separate to Walker and Arktos', as male and female polar bears live separately in the wild. During the polar bear breeding season, which general falls between March and May, we will gradually introduce her to Arktos and the two will stay together until the two hopefully mate, when the male will be returned to the bachelor enclosure.

"A great deal of thought and planning has gone into developing Victoria's enclosure. It is a large area featuring a large pond and plenty of natural ground for her to explore. In addition to the main enclosure, there is an adjacent smaller holding enclosure with its own pool that will initially house the male until the signs are right for the introduction. This extra enclosure allows us to also use a visiting male from another zoo, should the breeding programme recommend it, and we are not aware of any other polar bear breeding facility that has this degree of flexibility.

"A polar bear has not been born in the UK for many years and we hope that our novel approach to enclosure design and the correspondingly unique husbandry regime will quickly translate into success. The birth and rearing of polar bears cubs will be of real value to the regional breeding programme, help to highlight the plight of polar bears in the wild, and will be incredibly positive for Highland Wildlife Park."

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has a history of designing state of the art polar bear enclosures that meet the animals' needs to the highest level possible. Animal experts from the Park have since been invited to consult and advise on other polar bear enclosures both in the UK and around the world.

Last September 60 military personnel arrived in the Highlands to help the Park's 'Works Team' create the visitor access to Victoria's new home. The Engineers from 71 Engineer Regiment and a contingent from the South Dakota National Guard kicked off the project with the construction of a 300 metre (984ft) walkway out to the one hectare polar bear enclosure on the south west side of the Highland Wildlife Park. The project has been a massive undertaking and included work on four separate construction areas, digging in over 200 posts by hand that were up to six metres high.

Victoria has previously given birth to cubs in 2008. Milak, her first cub, became an online sensation when hundreds of thousands of people from 75 countries around the world followed the early days of the cub's life whilst still in the maternity den. It was one of the first times that webcams were able to show what life is like with a mother and a newborn cub. Last December, at natural dispersal age, Milak was transported to Zoo Saint-Félicien in Quebec as part of an exchange to augment the Canadian captive polar bear programme.

The last female polar bear to live in the UK was Mercedes, who died at the old age of around 30 years old in April 2011. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, alongside a generous benefactor, saved Mercedes from certain death in Canada in the early 80s when she came to live at Edinburgh Zoo, before later in life moving to live in the radically different enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park where she was eventually joined by the young Walker.

Visitors to Highland Wildlife Park will be able to meet Victoria in early April.