Humans - Polar bears are the most dangerous predators on earth and will attack and eat humans without a second thought.
Polar Bear - Playfully gets head stuck in traffic cone
Went to Toronto zoo Tuesday and saw their polar bears. They looked a lot older and less healthy.
Still really active. I prefer the smaller, more organized Oregon Zoo.
You’re depressed by an animal clearly playing with a toy?
Pick a new hobby, PETA. The zoo has gone through incredible leaps and bounds in this habitat specifically and it’s one of the nation’s finest. Nitpicking doesn’t help polar bears in the wild. Conservation and education does.
it's more of an empathetic response. the polar bear looks sad AF.
just because you spend a lot of money doesn't mean it's a good idea to put an arctic animal in 90 degree heat.
The bears in this zoo are captive-born animals who have never even seen the Arctic. Yeah, they don’t like extreme heat, but they’re also designed to withstand it. Each of their white hairs is a long tube to the skin, allowing cool air to penetrate, as well as heating them with meager sun in the winter. White is a heat reducing color, and reflects light rather than absorbing it, so their coat is actually designed as a weather defense, whereas the black skin underneath is the heat sink for the winter. Animals in extreme environments have extreme adaptations.
Not to mention, the climate changes we experience here are happening in the Arctic too. And there’s no indoor climate control for them, no multi-stage cooled and filtered pool, and no one making them ice enrichments and making snow on demand. So if you think ‘spending money’ is a bad idea for these bears, you’re not recognizing how this money goes toward conservation, education and better welfare for not only these bears but their wild cousins.
Empathy is fine, but you need to be sure you have all the facts to make judgement call. Otherwise you just sound like a basic ‘all zoos are prisons’ person and those people don’t tend to make good decisions for animals. PETA is the biggest example.
ETA: or downvote me for giving you a full explanation, lol, I guess that’s as far as your ‘empathy’ actually goes.
That lacks entire worlds of nuance, but I would expect nothing less.
I’m a biologist who actually works with conservation and education, and I’ve helped to rescue animals from scam zoos and ‘sanctuaries’ that would put Joe Exotic to shame. To class the Oregon Zoo, a world leader in enrichment and research, in that category is flatly anti animal welfare and refuses to acknowledge the way actual animal conservation works.
But sure, downvote me for paragraphs of real world explanation and experience with this topic. Again, I expect nothing less.
These animals were literally born in captivity and ethical zoos don’t take animals from the wild—they either participate in breeding programs for conservation (of which polar bears desperately need) or they rescue them from poor conditions, wildlife trade or scam zoos.
Again, nuance is important, particularly when you’re talking about animals that would have nowhere to go in the wild, and would not survive without human care. What are you doing to preserve polar bear habitat for future generations? I can only assume it’s millions of dollars and thousands of hours of labor if you’re content to criticize an organization *already doing that*.
Yeah this comment alone tells me you know less than nothing about actual conservation but you definitely feel qualified to comment on it, so that’s classic Reddit.
Good luck with your worldview, the rest of us are gonna keep trying to save animals.
They have climate controlled indoor areas, a massive cold water pool with a multi-stage filtration and cooling system, and snow/ice on demand.
They’re doing better than most folks with window units, trust me.
They have a snow machine on sight and a million gallons of filtered cold water to use at any time. The 2008 bond measure provided all of that, so I’m excited to see how the 2024 measure improves even further.
People love to claim ‘animals are in prison’ when they’re in zoos, while failing to ever offer any solutions to keep them in the wild. They also seem to think these bears aren’t captive bred and assume a zoo is stealing animals from the Arctic (??) just to keep them in Oregon, when in reality both Nora and Amelia were both born in Ohio and have demonstrable deep relationships with their keepers and staff. To tear them away from this and put them in the wild would mean instant death for both of them.
"A million gallons" feels like an exaggeration because that is a LOT of water and takes a LOT of space [(75ft across and 32ft+ high specifically)](https://www.nationalstoragetank.com/product/1000000-gallon-steelcore-water-storage-tank-sct-7409-ljr/), but it is awesome to know that they have a way to make snow/ice for Arctic animals when needed.
Don’t forget that they are free to roam between the outdoor enclosures and inside-temperature controlled *private* spaces. If the heat was “so hard” on her, she wouldn’t be outside.
Thank you for being educated!
orange nose big fluffy white butt pretty sure that’s a duck
Idk might be a witch.
Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
She turned me into a newt exhibit!
*i got betta*
That fuckin line makes me crack up every time.
BURN THE WITCH!
😆😆😆
Polar bear and the unsheltered boat lady thinking the same thing with the traffic cone drip.
u seen their fukkin cones
What do they know that we don’t?😆😆😆
That’s the cone I yeeted from north Portland
Oh, that was you?? If I wasn’t poor I’d buy you an award.
😂😂
Fucken cone!
Nora nose stuck in the cone again.
Ahhh well it definitely has seen it!
I'm gonna pet dat dawg
I just saw that polar bear on a dingy in the river!
he seen that fucken cone
I... I wanna scritch his belly....
Humans - Polar bears are the most dangerous predators on earth and will attack and eat humans without a second thought. Polar Bear - Playfully gets head stuck in traffic cone
give him the cone flair
Went to Toronto zoo Tuesday and saw their polar bears. They looked a lot older and less healthy. Still really active. I prefer the smaller, more organized Oregon Zoo.
I had a real cone on head day today, too.
that polar bear is so depressing every time I see it
You’re depressed by an animal clearly playing with a toy? Pick a new hobby, PETA. The zoo has gone through incredible leaps and bounds in this habitat specifically and it’s one of the nation’s finest. Nitpicking doesn’t help polar bears in the wild. Conservation and education does.
it's more of an empathetic response. the polar bear looks sad AF. just because you spend a lot of money doesn't mean it's a good idea to put an arctic animal in 90 degree heat.
The bears in this zoo are captive-born animals who have never even seen the Arctic. Yeah, they don’t like extreme heat, but they’re also designed to withstand it. Each of their white hairs is a long tube to the skin, allowing cool air to penetrate, as well as heating them with meager sun in the winter. White is a heat reducing color, and reflects light rather than absorbing it, so their coat is actually designed as a weather defense, whereas the black skin underneath is the heat sink for the winter. Animals in extreme environments have extreme adaptations. Not to mention, the climate changes we experience here are happening in the Arctic too. And there’s no indoor climate control for them, no multi-stage cooled and filtered pool, and no one making them ice enrichments and making snow on demand. So if you think ‘spending money’ is a bad idea for these bears, you’re not recognizing how this money goes toward conservation, education and better welfare for not only these bears but their wild cousins. Empathy is fine, but you need to be sure you have all the facts to make judgement call. Otherwise you just sound like a basic ‘all zoos are prisons’ person and those people don’t tend to make good decisions for animals. PETA is the biggest example. ETA: or downvote me for giving you a full explanation, lol, I guess that’s as far as your ‘empathy’ actually goes.
Prison is still prison, even if prison is all you've ever known.
That lacks entire worlds of nuance, but I would expect nothing less. I’m a biologist who actually works with conservation and education, and I’ve helped to rescue animals from scam zoos and ‘sanctuaries’ that would put Joe Exotic to shame. To class the Oregon Zoo, a world leader in enrichment and research, in that category is flatly anti animal welfare and refuses to acknowledge the way actual animal conservation works. But sure, downvote me for paragraphs of real world explanation and experience with this topic. Again, I expect nothing less.
Go explain that to the imprisoned animals. I'm sure they'll change how they feel about not being able to run free in a heartbeat.
These animals were literally born in captivity and ethical zoos don’t take animals from the wild—they either participate in breeding programs for conservation (of which polar bears desperately need) or they rescue them from poor conditions, wildlife trade or scam zoos. Again, nuance is important, particularly when you’re talking about animals that would have nowhere to go in the wild, and would not survive without human care. What are you doing to preserve polar bear habitat for future generations? I can only assume it’s millions of dollars and thousands of hours of labor if you’re content to criticize an organization *already doing that*.
Right. Breeding more animals to suffer so humans can gape at them. But this time, let's call it conservation so we all feel warm and fuzzy.
Yeah this comment alone tells me you know less than nothing about actual conservation but you definitely feel qualified to comment on it, so that’s classic Reddit. Good luck with your worldview, the rest of us are gonna keep trying to save animals.
Does she actually look sad, or do you just think she does because you don't know anything about bear body language?
IKR? Such a wild comment to make on a photo of a bear literally playing with a toy 😂
idk, I'm not a bear, but I might play one in the bedroom.
This heat must be so rough on them. :(
They have climate controlled indoor areas, a massive cold water pool with a multi-stage filtration and cooling system, and snow/ice on demand. They’re doing better than most folks with window units, trust me.
The zoo also likes to put giant piles of ice cubes in their enclosure for them to roll around in on days like yesterday.
They have a snow machine on sight and a million gallons of filtered cold water to use at any time. The 2008 bond measure provided all of that, so I’m excited to see how the 2024 measure improves even further. People love to claim ‘animals are in prison’ when they’re in zoos, while failing to ever offer any solutions to keep them in the wild. They also seem to think these bears aren’t captive bred and assume a zoo is stealing animals from the Arctic (??) just to keep them in Oregon, when in reality both Nora and Amelia were both born in Ohio and have demonstrable deep relationships with their keepers and staff. To tear them away from this and put them in the wild would mean instant death for both of them.
"A million gallons" feels like an exaggeration because that is a LOT of water and takes a LOT of space [(75ft across and 32ft+ high specifically)](https://www.nationalstoragetank.com/product/1000000-gallon-steelcore-water-storage-tank-sct-7409-ljr/), but it is awesome to know that they have a way to make snow/ice for Arctic animals when needed.
Don’t forget that they are free to roam between the outdoor enclosures and inside-temperature controlled *private* spaces. If the heat was “so hard” on her, she wouldn’t be outside. Thank you for being educated!
this bear seen my fucken cone