Do polar animals overheat in zoos in temperate climates?
Zoo’s in America have a standard on how to maintain polar bear enclosures to assure that they have necessary cooling systems for them. It isn’t the same as being in free living situations, but it is certainly good enough that they are kept moderately comfortable at all times. That being said, they will still spend most of their time in the water to help stay cool. Now, not everywhere in the world do they have such requirements. There was a zoo I went to in Shanghai where they had the polar bear in a small cement enclosure and had a “pool” (a indent in the cement filled with water) that wasn’t big enough for the polar bear to submerge, with NO cooling system. It was August, and it was about 107 degrees Fahrenheit out, and really humid to top that. I was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life, and the clearest case of animal abuse I had ever seen. I cried.
