Barle's Story

One Polar Bear's Amazing Recover from Life as a Circus Act

In this inspiring and moving story, world-renowned zookeeper Else Poulsen describes how a female polar bear named Bärle was rescued from the filthy, inhumane conditions of a circus in the Caribbean and flown to the safety of the Detroit Zoo, where Poulsen helped her recover. There Bärle feels dirt instead of concrete under her paws for the first time in decades and slowly forges relationships with the other polar bears. Eventually, she mates and raises a cub. As Poulsen documents, however, not all captive bears are so fortunate. With black-and-white photographs.