Tayler is cool

Stop with the “zoos are terrible” baloney. They aren’t. It’s not a perfect world we’ve got, here.

The polar bear in the pic ip there *is* diggin’ that icepile. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…

sad. Polar bears are adorable, zoos are terrible, global warming is disasterous.
I nearly cried during the part of “An Inconvienent Truth” when the polar bear is looking for ice and it keeps breaking so he falls back in the water.

In case anyone is interested, this NPR piece by Scott Simon is heartbreaking and beautiful, and deals with zoos:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5543042

*shiver*
Man, I am definitely not a polar bear. Makes me cold just looking at it…gimme 90 degree heat anytime.

That is too cute though. The perfect face of bliss. Like he’s cuddled in a ice blanket or something.

At least he’s not doing the ‘polar bear pace.’ I hate that. It always seems the zoo’d polar bears have lost their minds and just pace back and forward swinging their heads. It’s hard to find well-done polar bear habitats at zoos.

Has anyone watched the polar bear episode on Ultimate Zoo(?) with the real ice habitat and ajoining seal cage?

In his dreams Nanook returns to the great snowy wastes where he was born and longs for the time when he can return

Gwenchocolate – I’m so glad I’m not the only one dragging my patient, eye-rolling hubby to the screen and comparing him to Teh Cute. And then snorgling him. You Go, Girl!

I dragged my husband over to the screen and squealed, “Honey! That bear is hugging his ice-pile close just like you do to your pillow at night!” SNORGLE!

Did anyone see the documentary about Klondike and Snow, the twin baby polar bears? They were rescued when their mom was killed, and spent their first months in a zoo; they had water to swim in, but no snow or ice.

When their keepers took them out to a frozen patch in the mountains (I think it was Colorado, but I might be disremembering), the critters simply LOST THEIR LITTLE MINDS frolicking and scampering and carrying on like crazy in the white stuff. It was hilarious… and sad, too.

I didn’t intend to stir up controversy…there is ’nuff of that on just about every other animal related website and I don’t think that is what CO is about.. But I should clarify that I think the pic is very anerable…and that yes polar bears are not biologically built to live on concrete in a zoo, but for whatever reason, this one *needs* to be in a zoo and I’m the optimisitic sort so I’m sure he’s in a lovely zoo that does the best that they can for him. And I still think it’s just a wee bit sad because for whatever necessary reasons (injury, illness, etc.) he is not in his natural habitat and he is missing it.

I can share a good comparison from my own experience… I grew up in sunny California, and 3 years ago moved to rainy Oregon. We moved for all the right reasons, I love it here, and we have no regrets.
But I’ll tell ya what, when the sun comes out after 36 days of clouds and rain and no sun, I practically strip down and roll around and bask unabashedly in the nearest sunbeam I can find….(not nearly as cute as this bear, so no submission from me)

So maybe this unbearably cute *pun intended* polar bear is in the best place for him, but that doesn’t change the fact that maybe once in a while he still thoroughly enjoys snorggling up to a nice mound of ice..