First News: Should polar bears be kept in zoos?

Should polar bears be kept in zoos? (photo: Polar bears in the wild)

A new report says that polar bears should no longer be kept in captivity.

The report, by international wildlife charity Born Free, is calling for an urgent review into polar bears living in zoos, and the physical and psychological impact that life in captivity has on this species. There are 151 polar bears living in zoos in Europe, including 12 in the UK.

Born Free says that there’s not enough space in captivity to keep polar bears happy and allow them to behave as they naturally would in the wild. Wild polar bears spend most of their lives roaming a huge area of land, hundreds of thousands of kilometres in size, which is impossible to replicate in a zoo.

The location of zoos can also be a problem for the bears. Polar bears’ natural habitat is the frozen Arctic, so in warmer countries they’ve been found to suffer from heat stress because the temperature is too high for them.

Will Travers OBE, Born Free’s co-founder and executive president, said: “The message is simple. No more breeding, no more imports, phase out the suffering – and have the honesty and integrity to recognise what has been staring us in the face for decades: that polar bears cannot endure a life in zoos.”

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Ukrainian Culture Day

By pupils from The Premier Academy

In February, we had a visitor to our school who taught us about Ukrainian culture and language. This was following us welcoming some children from Ukraine into our school community in the past year.

Part of the workshop for Ukranian Culture Day

In the workshops, we explored an amazing Ukrainian book called My Grandma and learnt how to translate it into English. It was all about who is special to us.

After school, the Ukrainian families and host families came into school to celebrate our Ukrainian CultureDay and spend time together.

There are many children in our school whose families live in countries all around the world. We celebrate this every year in our Cultural Diversity Week. Each class explores the features of a different country, including its culture and arts. We share what we learn with the other classes, showing them our art and dancing, and our singing in different languages.

Thank you to the Stephen Spender Trust for organising our Ukrainian workshops.

WOW!

Sarah Merker from London has completed a ten-year challenge to try a scone at every possible National Trust location in the UK – that’s 244 scones in total!

DIARY DATES

THE ACADEMY AWARDS (THE OSCARS)

MARCH 12

The oldest, most famous film ceremony in the world takes place in Los Angeles, USA.

COMMONWEALTH DAY

MARCH 13

An annual celebration observed by people all over the 56 countries in the Commonwealth.