No more polar bears for tropical Singapore Zoo

SINGAPORE, Sep 8 (Reuters) The Singapore Zoo is looking for a new home for its male polar bear and will no longer bring animals from the North or South Poles to tropical Singapore, an official said.

Zoo director Fanny Lai told Reuters yesterday that Inuka, a 16-year-old polar bear born in Singapore Zoo, will be moved to a zoo in a temperate climate and that Singapore has told the Rostock Zoo in Germany -- which keeps track of all captive polar bears in the world -- that Inuka is available for transfer.

She denied the planned move was in response to a local animal rights group's campaign ''What's a Polar Bear Doing in The Tropics?'', adding that the Singapore zoo had decided to focus on being a rainforest zoo.

''You can't keep an Arctic animal in an open-air enclosure in the tropics,'' Animal Concerns Research and Education Society president Louis Ng told Reuters. The zoo said the bears have an air-conditioned den and misting fans.

Inuka, the first polar bear born in the tropics, will only be moved after the death of his 29-year-old mother Sheba, who will not be moved because she is too old. Polar bears in captivity have an average life span of 25 years.

Reuters PB DB0858