Young polar bear dies unexpectedly
Preliminary reports suggest swelling of throat led to death of Eli
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This article was published 18/07/2017 (3033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Veterinarians at Assiniboine Park Zoo are still looking for answers after the unexpected death of a nearly two-year-old polar bear.
The zoo announced the death of Eli, who arrived at Assiniboine Park Zoo in October 2015 as an orphan, on July 16. Eli died on July 15 after being put under anesthesia for examination when zookeepers noticed the bear was behaving strangely.
Dr. Chris Enright, head of veterinary services at APZ, said zookeepers first noticed something was wrong with the young bear on July 14 and contacted the zoo’s veterinarians.
“On Thursday of last week Eli was quite normal for interactions with the keepers, and our keepers really do have a good relationship with the animal and have that good feel for when something is abnormal,” Enright told The Sou’wester on July 18. “On Friday the keepers noticed that he was off. He was eating but not with as much enthusiasm as he might normally eat. He was interactive but not quite as bright as he would normally be.”
Enright said Eli’s behaviour was the most obvious symptom, though keepers also noticed he was drooling a bit on Friday.
Zoo veterinarians began to formulate a plan of treatment for Eli, Enright said, but on Saturday the bear’s condition had worsened to the point where putting the bear under anaesthesia for a physical exam was needed urgently.
“Unfortunately very soon into the anesthesia, he started experiencing breathing difficulties unrelated to the anesthesia itself. It was more the significant underlying condition that began catching up to him,” Enright said.
According to the zoo, a preliminary necropsy of Eli indicates internal swelling of tissues in the throat and neck and the swelling is believed to have interfered with his breathing, causing death.
“Anytime we do an anesthesia we have emergency supplies at hand for potential complications. So in this case resuscitative efforts began as soon as it was safe to approach a bear and included everything up to and including emergency drugs to help him out,” Enright said.
“The breathing challenges didn’t really manifest until he was under anesthesia and it wasn’t until they were starting the resuscitative efforts that we really started cluing in that there was significant swelling in his throat interfering with his ability to breathe.”
Enright said anesthesia is administered regularly at the zoo and are performed on the polar bears a “handful” of times a year.
Zoo officials are waiting on the results of a full pathology report, which may take more than a week to complete and could provide answers as to what caused the inflammation in Eli’s throat. However, Enright said veterinarians have a list of possible causes including a trauma caused by a fall or fish spine. Enright said the possibility of a viral or bacterial infection, or toxin, is low.
“At this point it doesn’t look like something infectious, but we’re still fairly early on in the course,” he said. “We still have a list of possibilities and as time goes on and as tests start coming back, what we can do is start narrowing down that list of possibilities.
“We would be reviewing some footage of the bear in the past week to see if we can see any behaviour, any significant fall that may have precipitated this, and absolutely we’ll be pursuing ancillary testing on samples in order to help us narrow down that list further.”
Enright said he isn’t aware of any similar deaths of bears in captivity in North America. He also added that the other bears and animals at APZ are not threatened and the trauma was limited to Eli.
“At this point we’re not thinking that they’re at increased risk based on what we’re finding, but to be prudent we’ll be keeping a close eye on them in the coming days.”
Enright said as the zoo gets more information about the cause of Eli’s trauma he expects the zoo will bring that to the public. Eli will be cremated and his ashes may be spread on the tundra in Churchill, Man.
“I think Eli had a good life. He had a second chance here at the zoo because he did come down as a bear that no longer stood a chance in the wild because he was orphaned at a young age. He was a good ambassador for his species to engage people with polar bears, wildlife conservation and he’ll be missed.”