Don’t expect to see the polar bears this week at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
The zoo’s Polar Bear Watch exhibit is closed for exterior renovations to the Tundra Buggy. The renovations are expected to take at least a week to complete, according to a press release from the zoo.
During the renovations, the Tundra Buggy will be washed, scraped and painted. The buggy will be tarped to protect the work from the weather. The ravens will be moved from their exhibit and the polar bears will stay behind the scenes in their night dens with access to the off exhibit pool area until the work is complete. Weather permitting, the exhibit area will reopen on Sunday, June 17.
The Tundra Buggy is a central component of the zoo’s polar bear exhibit. It is an out-of-service all-terrain vehicle built and used by Frontiers North Adventures as a wildlife viewing vehicle for photographing and observing polar bears and other Arctic wildlife which was driven across the country in 2003 to its’ final destination as part of the exhibit. The Tundra Buggy physically separates the two exhibit areas and allows zoo visitors to view the bears from above the exhibit, similar to how one would view polar bears in the wild from a working Tundra Buggy.
The Tundra Buggy also serves as a place where zoo visitors can come in out of the cold or heat, and learn about the natural habitats where polar bears live, the conservation challenges that they face in the wild, and the ways in which the zoo cares for its polar bears.
