Bella’s Bera-Bera

Sendai’s Polar Bears and Zoo Welfare

By: Isabella Tiberi

Until I came to Japan, I’d never seen a polar bear outside of a documentary, photo, or Youtube video of Russians feeding them fish and patting their heads without fear of the 700-pound beast at their window. Part of that is because I’m from Texas ,where the hot humid climate isn’t liveable for its own residents, much less a bear from the colde st region in the world. Still, I’ve always wanted to see a polar bear outside of a screen or the pages of a book. While I was vacationing in Sendai, I discovered that the Yagiyama Zoo had not one, but two of them in an enclosure. It seemed like the perfect place for me to visit, but when I finally saw these creatures, it wasn’t at all how I’d hoped it would be.

I’m not a zoologist by profession. Believe it or not, my initial minor in college was marine biology…but after a full semester of hardcore tutoring, studying, and hysterical crying that resulted in a D in the introductory courses, I discovered I was better off engaging in amateur animal studies than becoming a degree-toting biologist. My major was psychology and one branch of the field I’ve always been fascinated by has been animal psychology; after all, who says humans are the only beings with minds worth exploring? One particularly interesting subject to me is how animals react to stress, especially those in captivity. I’m sure most of us have been to at least one zoo and have seen animals that don’t seem particularly happy in their enclosure with dozens of humans gawking at them all day. I believe that if the main goals of zoos is to promote conservation and to protect vulnerable animals, it’s important to determine if keeping them in captivity is truly better than letting them exist in the wild.

In the case of the Yagiyama Zoo’s polar bears, I’m worried that they’re far more miserable than they would be in the tundra. 

A polar bear at Yagiyama taking a nap. 09 September 2023.

When I arrived at the polar bear enclosure, I was surprised to find it separated into two sections. The fact that the two bears were separated made sense to me; polar bears are solitary animals who, unless they’re coming together to mate, might become territorial in close quarters. What did raise my eyebrows was just how small these enclosures were. Polar bears in the tundra average at 1.3 meters on all four legs and walk approximately 12.5 kilometers per day, so any zoo keeping one in captivity would need a large amount of space for their bears to feel comfortable. The average size of a polar bear enclosure is roughly 268 square meters, which in human terms is like living alone in a 3-bedroom house. It’s a far cry from 12.5 kilometers, but these enclosures can provide enough room to make the polar bear feel comfortable without being too cramped.

This size issue is obviously not exclusive to Yagiyama, and the enclosure shown above with the sleeping bear provided ample room for the bear to walk around. However, the other enclosure was much smaller, and this second polar bear was showing obvious signs that they were going stir-crazy. I didn’t have a yardstick handy, but by my estimate it was roughly six times the size of the polar bear inside; assuming they were the average size of 1.3 meters, that meant this bear was living in the human equivalent of a larger than average prison cell. 

I spent forty minutes in the polar bear area, observing this bear’s behavior, and I quickly noticed that it was acting peculiar. The entire time I watched it, it would follow the same pattern over and over: pacing around the enclosure clockwise, pausing at the area by the water, pacing back to its starting point, throwing its head around twice while growling, and repeating it all over again. Even as a layman, I could tell this bear wasn’t doing well in captivity. I decided to look into the scientific reasons behind this behavior, hoping I could find an explanation for its strangeness.

Captive animals pace for multiple reasons, most notably from “[a change in] quality of an animal’s previous and current environment, lack of novel enrichment, or even anticipation of routine care taking activities.” There was no sign of enrichment within either polar bear enclosure, and given that the bear was pacing for at least one hour it likely wasn’t anticipating a specific activity. I believe that this polar bear was pacing because the enclosure was too small, there was nothing enriching to explore or engage with, and because the temperature was too hot to be comfortable. 

While Sendai’s average winter temperature can be freezing, that’s not at all what the weather is like all-year-round; on the day that I visited Yagiyama Zoo, it was 24 degrees Celsius. For an animal with dense fur and a body meant for the Arctic (where summers are typically 0 degrees Celsius at the highest), that must have felt hellish. Imagine if you were wearing three fur coats and had to spend your summer trapped in an outdoor cage, and you had nothing to do except sleep, eat, and be watched all day by strangers. How is keeping these bears in conditions like this helpful and a better alternative to letting them stay in the wild?

I believe that zoos are an important aspect of conservation; for endangered species like polar bears, keeping them captive can provide protection from their unsafe environment and they can serve as ambassadors of their species for humans to learn about. But if a zoo is going to take an animal from their natural habitat, they need to make sure that their enclosures are suitable homes for these species. If an animal is going to suffer from an inadequately designed space, a lack of enrichment, and a climate it was never meant to live in, then it isn’t worth taking them from their habitat. 

Yagiyama Zoo is largely the same as it was when it was first built in 1965, and that laws regarding animal neglect and zoo regulation were very different back then compared to the modern day. While I understand that a renovation of the polar bear enclosures would cost an inordinate amount of time and money (and raises the additional question of where to place the bears while their home is remodeled), even just adding some minimal enrichment and making small changes could drastically improve the lives of these animals. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Add ice blocks to the enclosure. These can help mitigate the high temperatures and can also help mimic their natural environment.
• To provide enrichment, zookeepers could place some of the polar bears’ food inside of an ice block and drop it into the water area. Polar bears have an excellent sense of smell and could easily break open a block of ice to get to their meal. Not only does this give the polar bears something to do besides pace all day, but I’m sure the public would love to watch these bears play with a block of ice while splashing around and swimming.
• Make a den for the bears that lets them hide from public view. I know the reason people visit zoos is to look at animals, but try to view things from their perspective; an environment that leaves you constantly exposed can be stressful. A man-made boulder or rock can allow the bears to have some privacy from the guests and each other.
• Add some soft substrate to the ground. The current Yagiyama enclosure was entirely rocky, and polar bears are more likely to pace and show repetitive behavior “on flat, barren gunite areas of their exhibits.” Basically, more variety equals more healthy behavior. 
• Spray scents around the enclosure. Bears have an excellent sense of smell, and polar bears in particular have to use their noses to navigate the frozen tundra. An easy and affordable way to spark these bears’ interest is by spraying a diluted scent onto a pile of straw or grass clippings for them to investigate. Zookeepers can add an extra challenge by putting some bear-friendly snacks inside the straw as well, and then put it in an old food sack for the bears to tear apart and play with.

For additional resources on how to provide a fun enriching environment for bears in captivity, I would highly recommend “Enrichment Portfolio for Bears” from wildwelfare.org Even if you’re not a zookeeper looking to spruce up your bear enclosure, it’s an interesting read that shows how much work and creativity it takes to keep animals in captivity happy and healthy. I hope that Yagiyama Zoo and other zoos keeping animals in not-so-optimal conditions can reflect on how to respect the creatures in their care. After all, humans are already responsible for destroying polar bears’ real homes–we should do our best to make sure the ones we build for them are a proper replacement.