How do you care for an elderly polar bear?

Victoria is the oldest of four polar bears kept at the Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorms National Park.

At 28, her keepers say she has reached the stage in her life when she needs old-age care.

Rebecca Amos, one of the park’s veterinarians, says a special diet and some exercise will be key to Victoria’s care.

Born in Rostock Zoo, Germany in 1996, Victoria arrived at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) Highland Wildlife Park in March 2015.

She became a media star after giving birth to Hamish three years later – First polar bear cub born in Britain in 25 years,

The number of visitors to the park increased and its gift shop was filled with Hamish’s beloved toys and postcards featuring him and his mother.

Hamish was moved to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster in 2020 and shares a 10-acre enclosure with five other male bears – Nobby, Luca, Indiana, Yuma and Sisu.

Victoria gave birth to another male cub – Brody – in December 2021.

They continue to share an enclosure, but recently keepers noticed she was struggling to keep up with Brody, now three years old.

He is Victoria’s last cub and is no longer part of the RZSS breeding program.

The park’s two other bears are male Arctos, 17, and 16-year-old Walker.

They are middle-aged in bear terms.

Polar bears can live up to 30 years of age, but average 15 to 18 years in the wild.

Rebecca says there is an effort at RZSS to prioritize the later life care of their animals.

She says the bears have already benefited from being housed in grassy enclosures that have ponds for swimming.

“The bears are on a very good substrate (surface),” she says.

“They don’t spend any time on concrete or tiled surfaces.

“After all, if you have to spend 30 years on that – especially for guys who weigh 700 to 800 kilos – it takes a toll on even the best-designed joints.

“Joint care is something we are considering for the bears.”

Diet is another way the park is trying to keep Victoria, Arctos and Walker’s joints flexible.

Rebecca says: “In the wild they eat seals.

“We can’t feed them seals, but we try to emulate that as best we can so it’s a very high-fat diet.

“They get huge amounts of cod liver oil, lard, salmon oil and oily fish like sardines, mackerel and salmon.”

To help keep Victoria mobile, food is often scattered around her enclosure to encourage her to forage.

Rebecca says: “We’re very lucky that we have such a huge amount of space and the enclosures are huge and they (the bears) use all the space.”

The RZSS has drawn on the experiences of other zoos and the study of polar bear skeletal remains to help understand the wear and tear on the animals’ bodies.

The health care provided to domestic cats and dogs also helped guide Victoria’s care.

And there has been an elderly polar bear in Highland Wildlife Park before.

Mercedes died in the park in April 2011 at the age of 30,