Orphaned Polar Bear Gets a New Home
Go ahead and kick back, baby. You deserve it!
An orphaned polar bear believed to be about 11 months old is settling into her new home at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Canada. Officials from the zoo recently traveled to northern Manitoba to rescue the bear after she was found wandering on her own near the airport.
Because polar bears depend on their moms for their first two years of life, the cub wouldn't have survived on her own.
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Her keepers say she quickly made herself at home at the zoo after arriving on Oct. 28. The 85-pound cub is eating well and enjoys spending time in her kiddie pool. She suffered some broken teeth, but was otherwise in good health.
She'll be in quarantine for her first month at the zoo, and will then join the two male polar bears who reside there.
"It's one of those feel-good stories that we can save her. It's a shame that you have an animal like this that you have to take from the wild, but with no chance of survival, it's the only thing that makes sense," says Don Peterkin, chief operations officer for the Assiniboine Park Conservancy, reports Zooborns.
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