The Polar Bear Lost His Marbles

Last Friday I had volunteered with my wife to chaperon her daughters', kid #2, field trip to the zoo. I will use ANY excuse to not go to work. And I also like the zoo. One of my best friends is a primate zoo keeper so I've gotten the behind-the-scenes view of the zoo and it's pretty interesting. And loud. And stinky. And dangerous(we're talking chimps that will tear you limb from limb).

But what got me this time was the polar bear.


It all seemed just fine at first. "Hey look at the polar bear! Look at him walking around in a circle."
Again, and again, and again.

I even commented to K, "look he even sniffs the same spot on the back wall every single time around.
A little bit later we caught up to my friend the primate zoo keeper, "they're not monkeys they're chimps!" Ok, ok simmer down now...

He said it was not a good sign; just like we had thought. The bear is basically going crazy and obsessively does the same thing, or pattern over and over. If there happened to be another door opened to, say, a holding pen, it would be enough to give it the change it needs to keep it's sanity.