Wednesday, April 12, 2000
Polar bears are next to get improved lodging at the zoo
Animal giants get more leg room
BY Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer
More Cincinnati Zoo residents are about to land in the lap of luxury: The polar bears are getting new digs, too.
Lords of the Arctic, under construction since September, is across from Jungle Trails in an area that has been in use since 1900. Its small, steel and concrete cages, considered obsolete by today's zoo standards, were razed last summer.
When Lords of the Arctic opens July 8, it will:
• Give the polar bears 5,577 square feet, more than double their current 2,778.
• Feature a 12-foot deep, 70,000-gallon-pool with an underwater viewing area that will allow visitors to watch the bears behave as they do in the wild. The current pool is 30,000 gallons and has no viewing area.
• Have five waterfalls.
• Include pathways winding through the landscaping and skirting the edge of the bears' compound, giving the feel of an immersion exhibit, even though it isn't (bears are considered too dangerous to allow visitors very close).
• Have four polar bears. Cincinnati's 3-year-old couple Danny and Rizzo will be joined by the brother-sister team of Ulaq (male) and Berit (female), 16-month-old cubs now living at the Denver Zoo.
“We don't weigh them, but we think they're 250 pounds,” said Angela Baier, spokeswoman for the Denver Zoo. (A fully grown male weighs 800-1,200 pounds; a female,400-700 pounds.) “They eat trout, smelt and what we call omnivore biscuits, a concoction that looks like dog food but is formulated specifically for bears.
“The thing with Ulaq and Berit, they're so playful. Ulaq loves to mug at people in the underwater viewing area.”
Underwater viewing areas are popping up in zoo renovations around the country. The Central Park (New York), Albuquerque and San Diego zoos recently added such areas to their exhibits.
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