 Bear Habitat
at Glacier Run
The Bear Habitat at Glacier Run provides a
state-of-the art home for both polar bears and grizzly
bears. The two species will be on exhibit separately. For
example, at any point during the day, polar bears might be
in the main habitat while grizzles explore the loading dock
area and go through their training and enrichment sessions
on the other side of town – and vice versa.
The 80,000 gallon salt water pool has both a shallow area
where the bears can play, and a deeper area where they can
enjoy a good swim. Multiple viewing windows including one
that is 22’ tall provide visitors with breathtaking
views of the bears both on land and in the water.
Digging pits offer enrichment for the bears as
they search for hidden items that just might include tasty
treats.
Visitors might also catch site of the bears climbing up
and down craggy cliffs to investigate the bottom of the
exhibit area (or get back to the top). These are
really “bear stairs” designed to facilitate the bear’s
movements but built to look like rugged, rocky terrain.
Variety
is the Spice of Life:
Animal Rotation at Glacier Run
The natural world offers variety…naturally. If you went
on a safari you might see a giraffe or a lion or an
elephant. You might not get to see them when you had hoped
or even in the order you had hoped. Animals in the wild
simply don’t adhere to predictable schedules that we humans
love. That is the direction the zoo world is heading with
modern animal exhibits and Glacier Run is no exception.
Built to be an exhibit where animal rotate in and out of
exhibit spaces at unpredictable times Glacier Run is much
like the award-wining Islands Exhibit.
Seals and Sea Lions are exhibited together in their
110,000 gallon saltwater pool, but the grizzly and polar
bears are exhibited in rotation. Why? At the end of the day
it is about keeping it fresh for these highly anticipatory
and smart creatures, “Rotation gives them lots of
variety,” says Supervisor of Animal Training Jane Anne
Franklin. “We don’t put them on a schedule, because bears
are anticipatory. They pick up on any routines very quickly
and start anticipating events like feeding times if we don’t
change things up a good bit. Non-scheduling more closely
mimics what they would do in nature – and that helps keep
them active and curious.”
Four sets of bears — #1 Inga, Otis and Rita, #2 Arki,
#3 Qannik and #4 Siku (and eventually a 5th group of Qannik
and Siku when Siku gets out of quarantine and Qannik gains
more weight) —will be rotated through Glacier Run’s spacious
indoor and outdoor areas offering the bears (and Zoo
visitors) variety and Franklin and the team of keepers
additional training time, “Rotation gives us an opportunity
to have quiet training sessions with them where we are
teaching and observing and just hanging out with our animals
building trust.”
You may wonder what the bears do when they aren’t on
exhibit. One of the philosophies here at the Louisville Zoo
is that we build our behind-the-scenes (or bedroom) spaces
to “equal” the exhibit spaces. That means that all those
spaces are an extension of each other in the animals’ eyes,”
stresses Franklin. “Our human perception sees outside as
being the place the animals want to be, when maybe they
really prefer to spend some time. inside with similar
activities and just hanging out watching us perform our
daily care duties.” The animals get the same high quality
enrichment activities to engage them in their bedrooms as
they do when they are on exhibit and according to Franklin,
“sometimes they just like to hang out and watch the keepers
perform our daily care duties.”
So just remember – if you don’t see the animals you think
you’re going to see at Glacier Run – come back again and
again. It will likely be different every time.
 Why
Polar AND Grizzly Bears?
Having these two bear species in the exhibit helps us
tell an important story about the effect of changes in our
environment. Due to global climate change and the early
thawing of polar ice, polar bears are being forced to
migrate inland. This means their range now crosses over with
certain brown bear species. In fact, in 2007 there was a
confirmed discovery of a hybrid polar bear, brown bear and
some of the latest scientific studies now show that polar
bears may very well be a subspecies of brown bear.
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