By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Back in the 1960s, a pair of polar bear cubs arrived at the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo. Since the two bears have been long gone, current Zoo Curator Ashley Burdick said one of the public’s most requested animals to bring to the zoo are polar bears.
With the amount of space needed, Burdick said the thought of reintroducing polar bears to the Great Bend zoo is fairly unrealistic.
"Polar bears are very temperature sensitive obviously," said Burdick. "They are also heavily regulated by Fish & Wildlife and the Canadian government. People always ask about those. Just the size of yard and exhibit, the pool, keeping the pool water clean would be expensive."
As far as more viable options for adding animals in the future, Burdick said she would like to bring back black bears. The zoo staff has also discussed bringing in more monkeys.
"They are not always our favorite animal to take care of because they can be kind of dirty, but getting some monkeys in would be nice," said Burdick. "Right now we just have the lemurs and gibbons. I'm not sure what species of monkey we would get, a smaller one or something bigger like the capuchins. We're definitely looking at monkeys."
Through the Zoo Association of America and Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a list is provided for zoos or organizations that are looking to place animals elsewhere.