How climate change is affecting wild polar bear welfare and what role zoos play in conservation and public education for this iconic species.
Polar bear welfare presents a dual challenge: captive bears require large, cold, stimulating environments to maintain psychological health, while wild bears face an existential threat from anthropogenic climate change. Zoos holding polar bears carry a significant responsibility to provide appropriately complex habitats and to use their platform to advocate forcefully for climate action. The welfare cost of inadequate exhibit design is measurable through stereotypy rates and activity budgets. The welfare cost of climate inaction for wild polar bears is potentially catastrophic at the population level.