Buckles Blog: Ursula #10

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Ursula-11, originally uploaded by bucklesw

Steve said...: This has to be one of my favorite Polar bear pics - an open top transfer cage!

Reminds of the time a "Moscow" Circus toured Australia and was getting some heat from the AR people aboout the tiny cages for the bears. So the promoter built a make shift exercise cage to appease them. It was a real cheapy with no roof - just erected each town to make it look good. The ARs never noticed the lack of a roof but a reporter did at one town and asked if the bears could escape. The dill that he asked quickly replied...."Oh they don't know that there's no roof because they are all blind". Management was not amused.; 07 March, 2010 16:12
Roger Smith said...: How did this piece of equipment, threatening at first glance, ever come into accepted use?; 07 March, 2010 20:04
Anonymous said...: The RBBB Gargantua wagon has a roof consisting of 1/4" think plywood on wooden ribs [maybe about 2 x 2], with sheet metal skin on the outside. He apparently never tried to breach the cage. The roof, constructed to serve as a plenum, served to distribute the conditioned air into his cage, the plywood perforated with hundreds of small holes.

Perhaps some beasts accept confinement, while others challenge it?

Bears caused considerable damage to cage floors. Anything wooden had to be covered with sheet metal, for protection against their claws.; 08 March, 2010 09:39

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