Zoo polar bears serve conservation education and research roles while facing welfare challenges from climate-inappropriate environments requiring intensive management.
Polar bears in zoos face a fundamental welfare challenge: they evolved for an Arctic environment of vast distances, seasonal variation, and complex foraging that no zoo can replicate. The welfare case for keeping polar bears in captivity rests on the conservation education value they provide and the support they generate for Arctic habitat protection — value that must be weighed honestly against the chronic welfare costs documented in behavioral and physiological studies. Zoos that invest in large, complex, climate-appropriate exhibits, behavioral enrichment programs, and welfare monitoring demonstrate that captive polar bear welfare can be meaningfully improved even if not perfected.