Polar Bears in Bristol

The polar bears at Bristol Zoo were a sad sight when I photographed them in August 1972, they were kept in  a large white painted pit, no substitute for snow.

 

It was probably the one feature of the zoo that has attracted more than its fair share of adverse publicity.  
Bears have bred here, but the pit itself was just that; a pit. The last two polar bears at Bristol, Misha and Nina, were put down in January 1992.