Singapore Zoo to keep green polar bears

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 

 

Singapore Zoo to keep green polar bears

 

SINGAPORE--Wildlife Reserves Singapore, operators of the

Singapore Zoo, on May 3, 2007 announced that it has reversed a

September 2006 decision to relocate the polar bear Inuka, 17, who

is believed to be the only polar bear ever born in tropical habitat.

" Transporting a full-grown polar bear to an institution in a

temperate country would be stressful, and carries its own share of

risks, the most extreme being that Inuka might die during

transportation or during the introduction process in the new

facility, " Wildlife Reserves Singapore stated.

Singapore Zoo spokespersons reaffirmed that the zoo will no

longer exhibit Arctic and Antarctic animals after the eventual deaths

of Inuka and Sheba, 29, his now quite elderly mother. Few polar

bears live much beyond age 30. Intending to move Inuka to a more

congenial climate upon Sheba's demise, Singapore Zoo director Fanny

Lai had asked the Rostock Zoo in Germany to help her find a new home

for him. The Rostock Zoo runs the global captive polar bear survival

plan.

However, polar bears are in oversupply in captivity, due to

the large numbers who are captured after wandering into northern

Canadian and Russian settlements.

" If Inuka is to remain, we strongly urge the zoo to raise

the polar bears' living conditions to meet international standards, "

responded Animal Concerns Research and Education Society founder

Louis Ng. " The current enclosure fails to meet the minimum standards

laid out in the Polar Bear Protection Act, which was made law by the

government of Manitoba, Canada, in 2003. These strict guidelines

must be met by any zoo wishing to acquire a polar bear from Manitoba.

" Indeed, " Ng said, " if the Singapore Zoo today wanted to

acquire polar bears from Manitoba, the government, by law, could

not allow it. "

Ng noted that " both Inuka and Sheba are still displaying

abnormal stereotypic behaviors, pacing and swimming in circles, " a

year after Acres published documentation of the behavior compiled

between September and December 2005.

ANIMAL PEOPLE spotlighted the bears' plight in a July/August

2005 cover feature, based on a site visit, entitled " White tigers,

green polar bears, & maintaining a world-class zoo. " The bears are

green from algae growing in their translucent hair shafts.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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Fax: 360-579-2575

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Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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