Animals Are Not Ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment or abuse in any other way.

PETA Australia
  • Action Centre
  • Campaigns
  • Living
  • News
  • About
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • Action Centre
  • Campaigns
  • Living
  • News
  • About
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
PETA Australia
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
PETA Search Icon
5 Reasons Why Polar Bears Do Not Belong in Australia

5 Reasons Why Polar Bears Do Not Belong in Australia

News / 5 Reasons Why Polar Bears Do Not Belong in Australia
10 February 2021

Polar Bear Climate Change

It’s not hard to see why humans are fascinated by polar bears. These large, charismatic mammals are a symbol of the Arctic, one of Earth’s most untouched environments.

Because people are so interested in polar bears, the Gold Coast amusement park Sea World keeps a number of them on display to entertain paying customers. But these animals will never be happy in Australia. Here’s why:


1. They need space to roam.

In the wild, polar bears spend most of their day travelling. They routinely climb over snow banks and steep ridges and can even leap over cracks in the ice that are more than 6 metres wide! With a home territory of up to 300,000 square kilometres and a travel range of 3,000 kilometres a year, they’re among the widest-ranging terrestrial mammals.

In captivity, a typical polar bear enclosure is estimated to be just one-millionth the size of the species’ natural home range. In fact, the “Polar Bear Shores” exhibit is much smaller than the facility’s car park. But even if Sea World were to dedicate its entire grounds to housing the four polar bears who live there, this still wouldn’t come close to being enough.


Polar Bear Shores at Sea World on the Gold Coast


2. They’re adapted to a cold climate.

Polar bears are naturally suited to the cold, as their thick fur prevents almost all heat loss. Sea World’s polar bear enclosure supposedly replicates an “Arctic summer”, but the subtropical Queensland climate is entirely inappropriate for them.


Polar bears don't belong in cages.


3. They’re predators.

Polar bears’ highly evolved sense of smell means they can sniff out prey more than 1 kilometre away and through 1 metre of snow. They stalk their targets (usually seals) patiently, lying low at breathing holes until they get a chance to club them with their enormous paws. In captivity, they’re denied the opportunity to engage in this instinctual behaviour or do anything else that’s natural and important to them.


Sea World Gold Coast Polar Bears


4. They become frustrated and stressed.

A University of Oxford study based on four decades of observing animals in captivity and in their natural habitat found that species such as polar bears, lions, tigers, and cheetahs “show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity”and concluded that “the keeping of naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be either fundamentally improved or phased out”.

Captive polar bears commonly pace, walk in tight circles, sway, roll their heads, and swim in repetitive patterns. This behaviour is symptomatic of not just frustration but also profound despondency.

In her book Animal Madness, Laurel Braitman writes that the practice of putting captive animals on antidepressants is surprisingly common. She says, “At every zoo where I spoke to someone, a psychopharmaceutical had been tried.”At New York’s Central Park Zoo, a polar bear named Gus was seen compulsively swimming figure of eights in his pool and was prescribed Prozac.


Sea World hosts Australia’s only captive polar bears. These animals are naturally adapted for freezing Arctic conditions and have been found in the wild to swim over 70km in only 24 hours with an average travel range of 3000km per year. Here, they are confined to an enclosure roughly 30 by 40 metres wide for their entire lives.Narrated by famous actor and animal rights activist Joaquin Phoenix for the Australian documentary that hit screens this year. Dominion: Documentary #JusticeForCaptives #CaptivityIsCruelty #PolarBears #SeaWorld #Dominion

Posted by Justice For Captives on Sunday, December 16, 2018

5. Their cubs are more likely to survive in the wild.

Attempting to breed polar bears in captivity ends in failure more often than not – indeed, the infant-mortality rate in captive breeding programmes is almost double that found in the wild. Polar bear cubs died at Sea World in 2013 and 2017.

Studies show that when captive bearsmate,this results in the birth of cubs only 5 per cent of the time. Furthermore, more than half of captive-born cubs die within the first month, whereas in the wild, around one-third die within the first year. A natural habitat is clearly essential for successful breeding.

Captive polar bear breeding programmes have very little to do with species conservation. Rather, they’re designed to increase profits, enticing the public with the promise of seeing cute baby animals.


What You Can Do

  • Spread the word that Sea World holds polar bears captive, and ask your friends and family not to visit establishments that imprison them – or any other animals – for human entertainment.
  • It’s estimated that two-thirds of polar bears could disappear by 2050 because of climate change. Animal agriculture is one of the biggest sources of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change, so eating vegan is the best way you can help these animals survive in their natural habitat.
Get Your Free Vegan Starter Kit Now!

Help Animals in 2025: Renew Your PETA Membership!

Donate Now

Recent Press Hits

  • Gradient background with a white rabbit silhouette and the text ‘PETA.’
    Calling on the Brisbane Broncos to Retire Buck and Renounce Rodeos
  • a baby and adult fox
    © Jeremy Hynes / Unsplash
    Australian Fashion Week Bans Wild-Animal Skins, Furs and Wild Feathers 
  • Gradient background with a white rabbit silhouette and the text ‘PETA.’
    Eurovision: Cheer On Australia’s “Milkshake Man” with Dairy-Free Treats 

Get PETA Updates

Sign me up for the following e-mail:
Our collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information is guided by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. More information about our privacy policies and practices is available in our privacy policy. That policy also details how you may access, seek correction of and pursue complaints regarding the personal information we hold about you. If you have any queries about these procedures or any aspect of our work, please contact us on (08) 8556 5828 or at [email protected] or write to us at PO Box 20308, World Square, Sydney NSW 2002. Current subscribers: You will continue to receive e-mails unless you explicitly opt out here.
PETA Fist Logo

Connect with PETA

  • Facebook Icon, PETA International
  • Instagram Icon, PETA International
  • Youtube Icon, PETA International

PETA International Logo

Mailing address:
PO Box 20308 World Square Sydney NSW 2002 ACN – 128209923

Info

  • Contact Us
  • Media Centre
  • Careers
  • Donate Now
  • Subscribe to E-News
  • Bequests

Services

  • Accessibility
  • Site Map
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • © 2025 PETA Australia Pty Ltd. Read our full policy.

International Sites

  • PETA US
  • PETA France
  • PETA Netherlands
  • PETA Germany
  • PETA India
  • PETA UK
  • PETA Asia
  • 亚洲善待动物组织
  • PETA Latino

PETA acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all other indigenous peoples.

Registered address: PETA Australia Pty Ltd, 219 Henley Beach Road, Torrensville. SA, 5031