Polar cap

Published on 04/04/2012 00:00

For once I’d like to wish the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) well in one of its projects (your report, 3 April).

I hope that Arktos, the new male polar bear, settles in well at the Highland Wildlife Park and that he and resident polar bear Walker prove to be compatible.

Far too many polar bears are kept in extremely poor conditions in zoos in other parts of the world. At Kincraig, the RZSS has the space to offer good-quality sanctuary to a few of those bears.

I urge the RZSS to now drop its plans to bring in a female polar bear for a breeding programme to produce cute and cuddly crowd-pulling cubs.

The offspring would have to be moved away from their parents after about three years and would most probably be exported to overcrowded, outdated, concrete-and-iron-bars polar bear enclosures where, like Minty, the last polar bear bred at Edinburgh Zoo, they would soon be driven mad and die.

John F Robins

Animal Concern Advice Line

Dumbarton