At the old bear castle

On a sunny summer day, we follow the summer campers to an old disused polar bear castle. The former residence of polar bears exudes the castle-and-ruin aesthetic of its construction era, the early twentieth century, with its massive stone walls, crenellated ramparts, thick black iron bars, and spiked barriers. The atmosphere of the old bear castle helps us attune to the history of the zoo. A piece of material history in a prominent location emphasizes the change in the living conditions of the zoo animals and serves as a flattering point of comparison for the contemporary enclosures.

The children make themselves comfortable leaning on the edge of the wall, while the counselors guide them to think about the past living conditions of the animals. However, the castle stirs the children’s imagination and their urge to explore.

“Can I go in there?”

“There’s a secret route there!”

The teacher directs the children’s attention to the architecture of the bear castle: “Now you can see the enclosure of a polar bear, quite dismal conditions there have been, there’s nothing there but a water pool. You see what’s missing here in this enclosure? We have already talked about what kind of stuff animals need in the enclosure. What should it include, for a good enclosure?”

A child answers: “For example, some trees, or the kind of environment they like, or in which they would be in nature, too.”

The teacher continues: “Yes! So, nowadays we try to build enclosures in the way that the animals are able to practice their species-typical behaviour, which means to do the things they would do also in the wild. But here, practically everything is lacking. There’s that tiny swimming pool but that’s not decent at all for polar bears.”

From atop the wall, we look down to the bottom of the castle, and I ask the children what kind of thoughts the building evokes in them.

“It’s exciting and strange that an animal can live in such a small space.”

“It would be pretty scary if there were polar bears here or something.”

“A big bear lives in a smaller house than I do.”

The materiality of the ruined castle and imagining big bears in a small space create an exciting, even scary atmosphere.

I ask one of the children what they think about how the bear castle is different from contemporary enclosures. After thinking for a moment, the child answers:

“I don’t know, it is really small."