Polar Bear Shores, Polar bear exhibit at Sea World, Gold Coast, Australia.
Polar Bear Shores is an enclosure at Sea World on the Gold Coast designed specifically for polar bears. Multiple viewing areas feature windows both underwater and at water level, allowing visitors to watch the animals from different perspectives.
Sea World began planning Polar Bear Shores in 1997, and the exhibit opened on 26 December 2000 with Ping Ping from Beijing Zoo and Kanook from Reid Park Zoo in Arizona. Kanook was put down in 2004 after kidney failure. A $1.5 million expansion, Polar Pre-School, opened on 21 September 2013 so Liya and her cub could be shown apart from Nelson and Hudson.
The exhibit's name plays on "shores", and its public areas are themed to an Arctic summer, with sprinklers simulating rain, five large fans regulating wind and mist lowering the air temperature. Educational signs line the three viewing areas and the paths between them. The 2013 extension was designed with Sculpt Studios and named Polar Pre-School.
The main exhibit has three viewing levels: underwater, water-level and above-water, linked by paths lined with educational signs. The saltwater pool is 1 to 4 metres deep, with smaller freshwater pools and a rocky surround. A behind-the-scenes tour is sold separately under Sea World's Animal Adventures program.
The exhibit has housed eight polar bears since 2000. Hudson and Nelson, twin brothers, were found abandoned in the Arctic at about four months old and rescued by Zoo Sauvage de St-Félicien in Quebec before moving to Sea World in late 2004. Keepers believe Hudson fathered Liya's 2017 litter.
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