Zoos 'have role' protecting wild polar bears

Monday, January 03, 2011

A boss at a park just keep the two British polar bear, he says, are not considered to manage the captive breeding of species in more than 10 years. The Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig is the home of Mercedes and Walker.

Collection Manager Douglas Richardson said that he did not previously feel the need to keep the Bears in terms of conservation. But he said the wild population is now so serious that zoos play an important role in protecting the bears.

Two years after his Walker Rhenen Zoo arrived in the Netherlands in November this year and is expected to plan, part of the Royal Zoological Society of (RZSS) Scotland polar bear farming in the future.

Mercedes, which is about 30 years and shares the area with young men, are not included in the proposal.

Mr Richardson said: "Over the past 18 months to two years, we are a cage, where the second polar bear Walker larger persist on how to build our future breeding male.
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They have become the poster child for climate change '

Douglas Richardson Animal Collection Manager

"A new woman died after the Mercedes, and the bear will be brought together only to breed to get clean.

"We kept apart for most of the time, which exist, as in the wild."

But Mr Richardson said: "If you told to go back plus 10 years old and me, we keep a polar bear in captivity, I would probably say 'nay' to '.

"There is really no need for conservation, but now they have become the poster child for climate change."

Recent studies have problems that affect the bears with climate change, shown to be associated.

Scientists led by Professor Pertoldi Cino, of the Polish Academy of Sciences launched, said in 2009, their study showed that polar bears have dwindled in size.

The team compared the bear skull from the early 20th Century with the second half of this century.

Their study described the changes in size and shape that can be associated with increased pollution and a reduction of sea ice.

To confirm this summer an Arctic expedition fears that polar bears are eroding barnacle goose eggs, which travel in the Solway Firth every winter.

Scientists say that, on the island of Spitsbergen is transformed into an egg was laid to sit on the floor in the summer months as a result of the reduced ice.

Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) said it feared the number of birds can be destroyed if the situation continues to be.
Two hundred and polar bears polar bears in zoos around the world held

In November this year in the U.S. as "critical habitat" for polar bears in Alaska sea ice disappears known.

Region - twice as large as the United Kingdom - has been set aside to prevent the danger of extinction set, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

According to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the latest figures available on polar bears in the wild are on 2008.

It says the scientists estimate that there are 20000-25000 bears.

Waza said there were 200 listed polar bears in zoos around the world.

The breeding plan for Highland Park Wildlife program has drawn criticism from animal welfare charities.

OneKind each polar bear breeding program is "congenital disability."

The Born Free Foundation, said in 2009 that the relocation of Mercedes' of Edinburgh in a larger cage but welcomed RZSS is "completely false" and plans to bring more bears.
"Gene pool"

Mr. Richardson said the park by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Polar Bear Division, the Bears managed in a good zoo, a positive role in the conservation of wild populations play guaranteed.

He said: "Mercedes comes from the population near Churchill on Hudson Bay in the west.

"Because climate change is the first population of polar bears to disappear and it could be done in the next 20 years.

"A healthy gene pool in captivity can be used to supplement wild populations in the future."

He added: "Not for a minute, I would suggest you re-introduction of the polar bear is just his view, but if we are not a captive population maintained properly, we may lose a very important election."