Mercedes the polar bear enjoys the snow at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, Scotland, on Dec. 29, 2009. (Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

At least one former Canadian — a polar bear living in a Scottish wildlife park — is enjoying a winter blast across Britain this week, in what a retired biologist says is a rare captivity story with a happy result.

Mercedes the bear was captured 25 years ago near Churchill, Man., and spent much of her life at the Edinburgh zoo before being moved to the Highland Wildlife Park in northern Scotland.

In recent weeks, the area has experienced heavy snowfalls and sub zero temperatures that zoo officials say more closely resemble conditions she knew as a cub.

"She just looks completely the part," Douglas Richardson, who works at the park, told CBC News. "Now that we've got deep snow, she is happy."

Richardson said Mercedes has been sliding on her own frozen pond at the park, and has even started smashing her paws into the ice, reliving what she would have done in her younger years searching for seals.

Many polar bears captured from Canada's North do not usually fare as well as Mercedes, said Mitch Taylor, a retired polar bear biologist who worked for years in Nunavut.

"The idea of a bear being reunited with the sort of habitat that she's born and bred for, it makes me feel pretty good," Taylor said.

"I think the feeling is that sometimes it's better for an orphaned animal just to become part of the [hunting] quota than to disembark for a lifetime of suffering in an environment that's maybe not adequate for them."

Louis Bruce of Coral Harbour, Nunavut, said until the 1960s, traders from the South regularly visited his community and paid Inuit hunters cash to shoot mother bears and capture the cubs.

Bruce said the Inuit became worried when they saw media images of polar bears in Mexico, and other captive polar bears with stale yellow fur.

"It's too hot for them," he said. "I don't think anybody would have to be a good scientist to figure that out."

The Nunavut government has strict conditions on the export of animals, especially polar bears.

"Generally we do not support the export of animals — especially polar bears — to zoos, because it's not supported by Inuit societal values," said Drikus Gissing, the government's director of wildlife management.

Gissing said officials would have discussions with affected communities and hunters before any exports are considered.