Polar bear enclosure, Budapest Zoo (male polar bear Fiete in April 2023) (Bear Conservation – used with permission)

Facility

Location: Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden

Address: H-1146 Budapest,
Állatkerti krt. 6-12 Hungary

Telephone: +36 1 273 4900

Email: info@zoobudapest.com

Website: https://www.zoobudapest.com/en

Exhibit: Polar bears are in the Little Rock (Kisszikla) area of the Zoo

Bears

Lloyd (male). Born in captivity 26 November 2000 in Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Vienna.  Transferred to Bremerhaven Zoo, Germany 18 February 2002 and then to Karlsruhe Zoo, Germany on 11 April 2022.  Arrived at Budapest 12 May 2023.

Details

Budapest Zoo is over 150 years old and is one of the oldest zoos in the world.  The polar bear enclosure was built in 1912 and in 2006 work was undertaken to modernise the facility.  The floor space was tripled and a new 350 cubic metre pool added.  The new pool incorporates an underwater viewing area where the bears are separated from the public by a 55mm thick glass viewing wall.  The old 18 cublic metre pool was filled in with soil to provide the polar bears with a digging area. 

Overall the enclosure lacks enrichment features for any resident bears although the zoo does state that regular treats and toys are provided.

The enclosure is dominated by the pool area with comparatively little dry land space available.  Other than the digging area the surface of the land area is concrete.  We believe that this outdated facility is totally unsuitable for the housing of polar bears.

We understand that there are tentative plans to further extend the facility to accommodate breeding females, possibly at some point in 2024.

Concerns

  1. Proposal to commence captive breeding in the future.
  2. The area available for the bears is very small, with the land area mainly hard surfaced.
  3. Poor enrichment facilities.

At present we have no information on the feeding, exercise, medical and enrichment regimes at the Budapest Zoo

Taken in 2018 this photograph of Belij & Serij gives an indication of the unsuitability of the enclosure (lintworm – Creative Commons Licence)

The video below of Belij and Serij (since transferred to Belgium in 2020) was published online in March 2017 and was filmed shortly after their arrival at the Zoo.

Return to Captive Polar Bear Directory

Page updated 25 February 2024