Berlin Zoo is cramming too many animals into limited space and isn't providing enough room for celebrity polar bear Knut, Claudia Hammerling, the wildlife protection expert in Berlin's city parliament has said. The "Golden Polar Bear", Knut, gave Berlin global attention and provided the zoo with millions in revenue as lost his own enclosure and has been moved in with 2 other female polar bears, one of which is the mother who rejected him. Visitors have complained that the trio has been ganging up on Knut and threatening him, and that he often looks scared and sits in a corner of the enclosure looking depressed.
Canadian polar bear expert Else Poulsen told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel last month that Knut's life with three other polar bears was "monotonous, outdated and cruel," and that he was losing fur and didn't have enough muscle for a four-year-old.
Claudia Hammerling, the wildlife protection expert in Berlin's city parliament, said the Berlin city government, which subsidizes the two zoos with $10.1 million a year, should not be allowing the zoo to increase its stock of animals. The number of animals held in Berlin's two zoos in eastern and western Berlin has increased by 2,029 to 23,706 between 2007 and 2009. She attributes the recent deaths of an elephant and an ostrich to the shortage of space.
We ask that the Berlin Zoo stop adding animals and start taking better care of animals they have by increasing their space and providing habitat enrichment for the captive animals.
SOURCE:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,726810,00.html
Zoologischer Garten Berlin AG,
Bernhard Blaszkiewitz (Zoologischer Direktor)
Mail: info@zoo-berlin.de
Hardenbergplatz 8
10787 Berlin
Tel. 030/25 40 10
