Circle of life embraces zoo

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This article was published 27/09/2014 (4104 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two orphaned cubs rescued on the shores of Hudson Bay could eventually join Storm, Aurora, Kaska and the beloved Hudson in the zoo’s new polar bear exhibit.

The cubs — a male and a female about 10 months old — were rescued earlier this week in the Kaskatamagan wildlife management area south of Churchill.

Manitoba Conservation staff spotted the cubs Wednesday during routine helicopter patrols. James Duncan, Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship’s director of wildlife, said cubs that young typically stay within a metre or two of their mother. Staff spent much of Wednesday searching for the mother, either dead or alive, around the well-known denning area. When it was clear the mother was missing and likely dead, Conservation made the call to rescue the cubs.

The cubs were tranquilized and plucked from the shores of the bay with nets dangling from the helicopter — one on Wednesday evening and the other Thursday morning. Then, with the help of the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s head veterinarian, who flew to the scene, the young male was transported to Winnipeg to the zoo’s new International Polar Bear Conservation Centre. The female is expected over the weekend.

There, Duncan said, they will undergo a full examination and a 30-day quarantine before staff begin to consider the next steps.

Polar bears, especially such young ones, can’t typically be returned to the wild when grown because it’s impossible to replicate life lessons in captivity. So, it’s likely the zoo will try to add them to the Journey to Churchill exhibit that opened in July.

The cubs could join three other northern rescues — Storm, Aurora and Kaska — along with the zoo’s main attraction, the Toronto-born Hudson.

Duncan said it’s preferable for cubs to remain in the wild and Conservation wasn’t out looking for orphans. But in this case, the pair almost certainly wouldn’t have survived. Though healthy, at that age they lack proper skills and are vulnerable to predators, such as wolves and even other polar bears. And, transferring them to Winnipeg will also help with ongoing research.

“The silver lining is there’s a lot we can learn when there’s no other option,” but to take the cubs into captivity, Duncan said. That option wasn’t available until the IPBCC opened in early 2012.

The arrival of the cubs is good news for a zoo mourning the death this week of a 19-year-old tiger. Baikal died in a fight with a younger tiger after a zookeeper left a gate unlocked between two enclosures.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca