Captive polar bears: Warsaw Zoological Gardens

The Kazimierz Lisiecki Alley leading to the main entrance of the Zoo (Adrian Grycuk – Creative Commons)

Facility

Location: Warsaw Zoological Gardens

Address: Ratuszowa 1/3, 03-461 Warszawa, Poland

Telephone: +48 (22) 619 40 41

Email: Click here for Warsaw Zoo’s online contact form

Website: https://polarbearhabitat.ca

Exhibit: Polar bear enclosure

Bears

Aleut (male). Born 2 December 2010 in Nuremberg Zoo, Germany.  Arrived at Warsaw 18 April 2013.  Twin of Gregor.

Gregor (male). Born 2 December 2010 in Nuremberg Zoo, Germany.   Arrived at Warsaw 18 April 2013.  Twin of Aluet.

Details

The single enclosure is extremely small with a total area of around 500 square metres (5,400 square feet).  There is a grassed area, concrete surfaces and a poll with concrete steps.

At present we have no further information regarding the on-exhibit are and no information on the off-exhibit area.  We understand that some environmental enrichment takes place (placing of tree trunks and branches can bee seen in photographs).  We understand that there is no off-exhibit air-conditioning nor any water cooling.

The aerial view below gives an idea of the nature and layout of the facility.

Concerns

  1. Unsuitable climatic conditions
  2. Only 500 square metres of area for the two bears.  This falls short of the Manitoba Standard (500 sq. mtrs. of dry land for up to two bears) and far short of our own recommendation for polar bear sanctuaries of at least 8,000 square metres (2 acres) per animal.
  3. Unnatural, stress related behaviour of both bears (pacing)
  4. Overall this seems to be a very unsatisfactory facility in which to keep polar bears.  We would hope that these bears can be found transferred to a sanctuary in the near future.

We do not at present have reliable information on the feeding, exercise, medical and enrichment regimes at Warsaw Zoo.

More Information

See the Bear Project’s 2013 article “Why polar bears should not be kept in Warsaw Zoo”  Note: The English language version of this article is no longer available online.  The link will take you to the original Polish version where you can use your browsers translation option, or similar translation software.

The video below, shot on 21 August 2018 and featuring Gregor and Aleut, gives some idea of the polar bear enclosure.

Back to the captive polar bear directory

Page updated 16 March 2021