Living in Dublin Zoo no teddybears' picnic

Dublin Zoo's polar bears, will leave Ireland next week for a new home in Hungary, because the zoo's facilities cannot cope with the strained relations between the male and female bears

Spunky, the female of the estranged couple, has been exhibiting signs of stress when close to the male, Ootec, but Dublin Zoo does not have the space to accommodate her in a separate enclosure.

"The continued pacing behaviour of the female polar bear has caused us concern and Dublin Zoo took the initiative to commission an independent study on both the male and female polar bears," the director of the zoo, Mr Leo Ooterweghel, said.

The study found the female required her own separate retreat to cope with the stress she felt when near the male. After consultation with the European Zoo network, the new enclosure at Sosto Zoo in Hungary was chosen.

"The enclosure in Hungary will allow each polar bear to spend time by themselves if they choose and yet will still allow them to come together, when and if they choose," Mr Ooterweghel said.

Dublin Zoo had been trying to off-load Ootec and Spunky for some years, a spokesman said, but hadn't found a suitable zoo. The bears have been in Dublin since the early 1980s and lived in cramped conditions until five years ago when a new enclosure was built.

The zoo suggested at the time that the facility was the best polar bear enclosure in the world. However it became clear that the new pen was still inadequate to give the female the space she needed.

The bears, which are in their early 20s, came to Dublin from Winnipeg Zoo in Canada after they had been rescued as cubs from a rubbish tip in Churchill, Canada.