We’ll breed polar bears in Scotland, says zoological society

RIGHT: Mercedes the polar bear in her new home in the Highlands

Accelerated rate of climate change in the arctic prompts move to save species at wildlife park

By Neil MacPhail
Published: 10/11/2009

The advance of the effects of climate change has prompted the Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore to yesterday confirm it plans to become involved in a polar bear breeding programme.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which owns the park and Edinburgh Zoo, intends to keep polar bears in its north collection for the foreseeable future and, in the long term, will contribute to the conservation and understanding of this increasingly threatened species.

RZSS recently transferred Mercedes the polar bear from Edinburgh Zoo to a four-acre, purpose-built enclosure at the Highland Wildlife Park where she has settled in extremely well.

Mercedes has been on her own for 13 years, which is the natural state for this solitary species, and she will remain on her own until she dies.

In time, RZSS plans to build another polar bear enclosure of a similar size and complexity at the Highland Wildlife Park to hold a male polar bear.

When Mercedes dies, a female will be placed in the existing enclosure.

The two bears will be brought together for the breeding season only, which replicates their natural behaviour in the wild, in the hope that they will produce cubs.

For several years, the polar bear has not figured as a focus species for RZSS, other than ensuring that Mercedes received the best possible level of care.

But RZSS said that, due to the accelerated rate of climate change in the Arctic, the polar bear population in the wild was now “perched on the edge of a precipitous decline”.

Highland Wildlife Park animal collection manager Douglas Richardson said: “Until recently, there was no real conservation need to keep polar bears in zoos as there was a healthy population in the wild, and therefore RZSS had no definite plans to replace Mercedes after she died.

“However, a shrinking polar ice-cap and shortening polar ice season has pitched the polar bears to the forefront of conservation concerns.”

Mercedes, the only polar bear in a UK zoo, had been in Edinburgh since 1984.

She was rescued from her native Canada after she was scheduled to be shot for roaming into a nearby town in search of food.

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1476229?UserKey=#ixzz0WSxIw9R4

See also: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Move-over-Mercedes--zoo.5808801.jp