Mass. zoo to add black bear exhibit

STONEHAM, Mass., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Mass., announced Monday the building of a $750,000 habitat to house two 250-pound black bears this spring.

The 2-year-old bears started their journey at the Appalachian Bear Rescue in Tennessee, where they have been raised since being were confiscated from breeders in Georgia, the Boston Globe reported.

The new exhibit will be on the site that was previously home to Major, a polar bear who died in 2000.

"New England has a large population of black bears in the wild and the separation between their habitat and ours is shrinking," said John Linehan, president and chief executive officer of Zoo New England. "By building this new exhibit and giving a much-needed home to these bears, we hope to educate people about these incredible animals and the ecosystem we all share."

The Appalachian rescue group decided that the bears couldn't be rehabilitated for release into the wild.