After years in a dry, hot Argentinian zoo, Arturo the polar bear died of old age this week. The animal, known with sympathy around the world as “The World’s Saddest Polar Bear,” was 30 years old. Temperatures in the summer in Mendoza, where the Mendoza Zoological Park is located, regularly reach the 100 degree mark–essentially the opposite environment an arctic polar bear would normally inhabit.
The hot climate, said many animal activists and scientists, made the animal literally go insane as Arturo could regularly be seen moving back and forth in its cement pit in repetitive movements (see above) or lying, sprawled out on the hot cement in agony.
“Arturo spent a lifetime in conditions that I think would be inherently stressful and unkind to him as an animal,” said Barry MacKay, senior program associate at Born Free USA. In 2014 a campaign was launched to have the famous bear moved to a Canadian zoo to better match its natural environment. MacKay was involved in the campaign that garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures from concerned citizens. The Mendoza park, which has long been known for its inhumane practices, refused.
Arturo came to the zoo at age eight after living the first part of its life in the United States. Many zoos in the region are changing, however. According to The Dodo, an animal watch website, the Buenos Aires Zoo will release most of its 2,500 animals to game preserves and turn its facility into an educational center.
“Every part of a polar bear’s body is designed for snow, for ice, for predatory habits and roaming huge distances,” Mackay said. “For 30 years, Arturo was deprived of it.”
