12:17 pm: Sleepy polar bear
I am going to St Boswells to spend about 30 hours uninterrupted time with my family.
So this morning I went to the zoo to see
Mercedes in the tiny little polar bear enclosure where she has lived for 25 years, which has driven at least one polar bear insane (that I know of).
Next week Mercedes leaves for the Highlands, where the Army has built her a much larger enclosure where she can roam around like a proper polar bear would. Probably no seals, though. At least, not for long.
Mostly, Mercedes was asleep. I don't think that's surprising: none of the coffee shops in the zoo open till half past ten. (I had to leave about 10:25, and went back via the market, where I had my usual skinny double-shot latte and considered buying provisions for the weekend and decided that, however apprehensive I am, if I want to spend time with my new nephew/get to know his mother, it would probably be necessary to leave my room some of the time. (Unless I can persuade them to hole up with me and leave my brother to fight with our parents on his own.)
Current Mood: 
awake
,
coffee,
family stuff,
zoo
![[User Picture]](http://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/185785/44799) | | From: | ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) yonmei |
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| Date: | dayordOctober 2009 11:22 pm (UTC) |
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I'm glad too, though I'll miss her. But! Apparently the Chinese government may let Edinburgh Zoo have a pair of panda bears, which would be excellent.
Mercedes has lived in that enclosure since the mid-80s, and isn't (apparently) insane. But when I was 12 or so (late 1970s/early 1980s) there were three polar bears in that enclosure, and I remember watching one of them playing with a plastic bottle in the pool - endless repetitive behaviour that was interesting at first, and then worrying, and finally I was really not surprised when I heard that one of the bears had had to be destroyed.
It's certainly too small an enclosure for more than one bear. I would think Mercedes is too old now but the enclosure exists: maybe the Zoo can get two more polar bears later.
| | From: | yonmei |
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| Date: | dayordOctober 2009 11:25 pm (UTC) |
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(Also, the zoo say the enclosure wasn't really too small for Mercedes, but I have seen Mercedes pacing back and forth along a very small track in the enclosure, in a way that certainly looked as if she was getting very bored. Non-stop, quite fast. When I think of that, I'm glad she's going somewhere where she can move fast and not run out of space in a minute or two.)
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