Activists are fighting to free this miserable polar bear from its Chinese aquarium 'prison'

The Grandview Mall in the Chinese city of Guangzhou has already come under fire from news outlets and animal welfare groups who are calling it "one of the saddest zoos in the world", a "prison" or more simply the "world's one of the saddest zoos in the world".

In damning footage shared by animal rights group Animals Asia, who are collecting signatures to have the zoo shut down completely, animals in the arctic exhibit inside the Mall are shown living in less than ideal conditions. 

In this video, a polar bear lies still on its side within a stark enclosure that offers little in the way of enrichment, comfort or even relief from the harsh artificial blue lighting that surrounds it.

Other images on Animals Asia's website show arctic foxes and wolves kept in similarly bleak, smaller rooms with no shelter from lighting, and nothing but a concrete floor to sleep on while  constant visitors banging on windows and yelling to try and either make them move or wake up.

The aquarium in the Grandview Mall reportedly boasts a menagerie of exotic arctic and marine life including two "polar bears" (that are believed to be polar bear–brown bear hybrids), five walrus calves, several beluga whales and two arctic wolves.

The facility spans 58,000 square metres across the Mall's second and third floors, and declares itself as the “world’s largest indoor above-ground polar marine world".

Experts say that despite this claim, the animal exhibits are woefully inadequate.  Speaking to the Southern China Morning Post, the director for campaigns and communications at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, He Yong, states that some animals already show signs of deteriorating mental health.

"The arctic wolf pacing around and scratching at the walls shows its mental health has already been badly damaged,” he said.

“It’s obvious that it is not used to the extremely small space."

The tank for the beluga whales measures a mere four metres deep, six wide and 15 in length. When you take into account that each whale measures roughly two metres in length and would normally swim up to 160km a day in the wild and routinely dive ten to 300 metres, it becomes apparent just how cramped these conditions are.

Arctic and marine exhibitions are booming throughout China with up to 16 more parks currently under construction.