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201304Apr16:30

Alaska Zoo tak­ing care of orphaned Polar bear cub

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 04 April 2013 | mod­i­fied 05 April 2014
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Polar Bear CubsOn March 12, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice received word that a female polar bear had been taken near Point Lay, Alaska. An Inuit hunter shot and killed the polar bear, and when he realised it was a female, he searched for the den and found the cub. The hunter recov­ered the cub after it was trans­ferred first to the com­mu­nity of Point Lay, and then to the North Slope Borough’s Depart­ment of Wildlife Man­age­ment (DWM). Sub­se­quent to a health eval­u­a­tion by the DWM it was deter­mined that the orphaned cub is a young male weigh­ing nearly 8.5 kg and 34 months of age. The Alaska Zoo was requested to arrange the trans­porta­tion from Bar­row and to pro­vide for pre­lim­i­nary care and man­age­ment of the cub. The cub is cur­rently being held for obser­va­tion at the Alaska Zoo, and appears to be respond­ing well.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice recog­nises and appre­ci­ates the many part­ners, includ­ing the peo­ple of Point Lay (who would like the cub to be named “Kali,” pro­nounced cully, which is the Inu­piat name for Point Lay), the North Slope Bor­ough, Alaska Air­lines, the North Slope Bor­ough Police Depart­ment, and the Alaska Zoo for their efforts in recov­er­ing, trans­port­ing, and car­ing for this young ani­mal.

“Kali” the polar bear cub will be avail­able for pub­lic view­ing in his out­door pen from 11am to noon and 3pm-​4pm daily, start­ing Sat­ur­day March 23. He will still have access to his indoor den dur­ing these times.

Kali will not be a per­ma­nent res­i­dent at the Alaska Zoo, since the Zoo already has two adult polar bears. The final des­ti­na­tion of the cub will be deter­mined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice after con­sid­er­a­tion of all options, Buf­falo Zoo in New York is can­di­date.

Footage of another orphaned polar bear cub that has been taken care of at Alaska Zoo:


(Video cour­tesy of John Gomes/​Alaska Zoo and USFWS )


Polar Bears Inter­na­tional (PBI) Arc­tic Ambas­sador Cen­ter
The Alaska Zoo is proud to be a PBI Arc­tic Ambas­sador Cen­ter, a char­ter insti­tu­tion dat­ing back to 2004. They are ded­i­cated to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in all aspects of polar bears lives, from a cap­tive set­ting to inspir­ing action and change for wild polar bears as they face sea ice thaw­ing due to cli­mate change.

As a PBI Arc­tic Ambas­sador Cen­ter, the Alaska Zoo:

  • Strives for bear friendly exhibits with enrich­ment activ­i­ties to stim­u­late the bears to be active and content
  • Pro­vides lead­er­ship for car­bon emis­sion reduc­tion in their communities
  • Sup­ports PBI research projects to help con­serve wild polar bears
  • Plays a key role in the PBI Sus­tain­abil­ity Alliance, a front-​line team help­ing to save polar bears in a rapidly warm­ing Arctic

A part­ner with PBI since 2005, the Alaska Zoo has sent men­tor­ship stu­dents, keep­ers and edu­ca­tors to PBI Lead­er­ship Camp in Churchill, Man­i­toba, Canada each year. Click here to learn about their cur­rent polar bear action projects!


(Source: the Alaska Zoo press release, 18.03.2013 updated 23.03.2013; Zooborns, 02.04.2013)

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