Not long ago, the Polar Bear Hotel, the Harbin Polar Pavilion, where you can watch polar bears in captivity for 24 hours, officially opened to welcome guests, and the hotel rooms were quickly booked. Taking advantage of the popularity of this hotel, the second phase of the Harbin Polar Museum also took advantage of the market to say that various tropical and subtropical animals moved into the “new mansion” in Harbin, Northland. However, is the “new mansion” really suitable for polar bears?
In 2005, when the Harbin Polar Museum was built, it was positioned as “China’s first scene park with the theme of polar animal entertainment performances”, dedicated to finding a variety of polar animals for performances. This year, two polar bears were sold to the Harbin Polar Pavilion, starting their life in captivity and “part-time work” in the pavilion. The two polar bears are twin brothers. They were born at the Leningrad Zoo in Russia in November 2002. Their names were Bering and Marekin at that time. Two years later, the Polar Pavilion collects “happy polar lovers” from the society, claiming that it will allow the selected candidates to have zero-distance contact with polar bears, and will also hold an ice sea diving wedding for “happy polar lovers”.
In 2012, the two polar bears who were forced to work 24 hours a day were 19 years old. They were renamed Dabao and Benben, and the fate of the brothers changed accordingly. Instead of exhibiting in the venue, they were kept in captivity in a hotel specially built for them. It is not so much a “Polar Bear Hotel” as it is “Humans are staring at the Polar Bear Hotel 24 hours a day.” All rooms in the hotel surround the living area of the two polar bears, and their every move can be clearly seen. Except for the same level as the captive area, there are also guest rooms on the second and third floors. This “surround view + pit” interactive design concept places the polar bear in the center of a similar stage, completely at the lowest point of vision, allowing humans to observe from a high position 24 hours a day, which puts the polar bear with nowhere to hide under great psychological pressure , And at the same time let the audience produce the subconscious of human beings above the natural world.
The habitat of the same kind of polar bears in the wild is the floating ice area and the continental shelf between the Arctic archipelagoes that stretch for tens of millions of square kilometers. The Polar Bear Hotel provides polar bears with an area of no more than 600 square meters. The senses, bones, muscles, heart, lungs and brains of polar bears have evolved with the goal of living in the vast Arctic. They need to move, forage and socialize in a vast space. In a small space, most of them are pools, and polar bears take the initiative to enter the water rarely. Basically, they will go down when the trainer feeds the food for a feeding display. Ornamental goldfish and other freshwater fish have been placed in the pool, and the environment where polar bears swim in the wild is seawater. Even in artificial seawater, the venue will add sodium hypochlorite disinfectant in order to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. In such a captive environment, polar bears are reluctant to enter the water, further compressing the originally small and cramped space for activities. These two adult male polar bears have lived in such an environment for more than ten years, and are always in an artificial, unnatural community. The pressure can be imagined.
The two polar bears in captivity appear to be a little thin. This may be due to the high temperature of the captive environment. They need to reduce their food to reduce body fat to avoid heatstroke or other reasons. Polar bears are the largest living bears. As carnivores, their ideal food is seals. Even if polar bears have a certain degree of flexibility in their diets, the “sufficient food” provided by captive facilities is difficult to match their natural nutritional needs.
When looking for food in the wild, polar bears can smell the seals whether they are hiding under thick snow or surfacing several kilometers away for air. Adult polar bears in the wild usually live alone except during the breeding season and during their cubs. They often gather at the seaside and wait for the sea ice to form. Once conditions are available for hunting seals, everyone will scatter. Polar bears have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years and become the top predator in the Arctic. But in captivity, they are surrounded by only concrete floors, some rockery and glacial formations covered with brown, blue and white paint, and rusty mottled fences. The food is not their favorite seal. Their sense of smell and taste can no longer be stimulated as they should be, and the part of the brain responsible for these senses is also difficult to play. Therefore, in addition to the loss of key behaviors such as hunting and sports, the senses of smell, taste, hearing, sight, and touch of the two polar bears were also deprived to varying degrees.
Soon after moving into the “new mansion”, tourists have witnessed the stereotyped behavior of the two polar bears of varying degrees, including pacing, shaking their heads, and hitting fences. In the Polar Bear Hotel, in addition to the polar bears, there are three beluga whales from Russian waters. When they first arrived in Harbin, they refused to feed for up to 12 days and had to be forced to feed fish and medicine to maintain their lives. In addition to refusal to eat, these beluga whales have swallowed foreign objects. In recent years, the aquarium industry has grown rapidly, and more and more animals have been caught and kept in captivity. Similar animal displays, animal performances, and similar cage arrangements have brought more and more fierce homogenization competition. When vying for the source of visitors, some venues completely regard animals as exhibits and profit tools, while clamoring for conservation to bring people closer to nature. However, short-sighted and poor captive breeding cannot make people truly understand these animals with vast habitat needs. On the contrary, it will mislead the public, especially children, and make people think that wild catching and captive breeding are normal, which consumes people’s empathy and ecological awareness.
Let’s take a look at the two “working” polar bears. Although humans have built an ultra-luxury hotel for them in name, their fate seems to be a foregone conclusion-being kept in captivity until the end of their lives, which is not what they want. So, where is the “hotel” of the polar bear? In fact, everyone knows that there are ice floes and continental shelves in the Arctic archipelago that stretches for tens of millions of square kilometers
