Bear with me (sorry)

I have always had something of a penchant for bears (my large legion of teddy bears bears (!) witness to this). I was so sad when I heard that the polar bear Knut had died at the Berlin Zoo. There is now another polar bear 'star', Siku, who lives at the Skandinavisk Dyrepark (Scandinavian Wildlife Park) in Djursland, Denmark. There's a webcam set up at the Wildlife Park which captures Siku's sweet cavortings (http://www.polarbearcam.com/) and I found this lovely 'highlights' clip (below) ~




I realise that zoos do an enormous amount to understand and preserve animal life but I do wonder also that animals wouldn't simply be best living in their own environments. Perhaps this is too simplistic. What do you think?

I have also recently become aware of the Free the Bears organisation, which helps many of the appallingly treated bears in Asia (http://www.freethebears.org.au/). Such beautiful animals.