Plans to breed the first polar bears are underway in Scotland.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland – working with Highland Wildlife Park – is developing the European breeding program for polar bears, creatures that are currently tagged “vulnerable” on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The plan has placed a specially built crate in male polar bear Arktos’ enclosure to be used to transport him to where Victoria, the United Kingdom’s only female polar bear, is located. The 8-year-old male is hoped to grow accustomed to the crate by the next month before being taken the one-mile distance to the female’s enclosure.
The two polar bears will be placed in their individual enclosure until experts and keepers determine that the time is right for them to be introduced.
“The two bears will be able to communicate and interact through a secure large fence to start with,” explains Douglas Richardson, the park’s head of Living Collections. He adds that they expect the bears to show interest in each other immediately.
Richardson said that as with introducing large predators, they should follow a careful and slow process, focusing on positive behaviors as demonstrated by posture and vocalizations, to name a few.
The team will then wait until the female polar bear comes into full breeding before they are paired up – still depending on their reaction to one another during courtship.
Wildlife charities, however, do not really think of it as a great time. OneKind Scotland and the Born Free Foundation dubbed the conservation plans as “spurious,” saying it tugs at the desire to put polar bear cubs on display to zoo visitors and spectators.
"Even with the greatest efforts from zoos, it's hard to see how polar bears confined to small enclosures will be able to have good lives,” says OneKind Scotland Director Harry Huyton, emphasizing the need of polar bears to have huge territories to roam and thrive in.
According to him, the wildlife park needs to show how its breeding of a number of polar bears in captivity could benefit the larger populations in the wild.
On the other hand, Richardson said that conservation efforts in “an ideal world” will truly take place in the wild. Yet, the zoo community is tasked to “help this species survive” and preserve a varied mix of genes.
