, Author at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Stories

Another breeding season has come and gone for our polar bears. Chinook and Kalluk bred this year in February, so the waiting game begins once again. Sometime in late September or early October Chinook will be brought inside and given access to her private air-conditioned den where she will hopefully rear her first cubs. She has already started to show signs that she wants some “alone time,” so on most days you will see her on exhibit in the morning and in the “polar bear penthouse” in the afternoon where she has her own private pool! If you take a look behind the exhibit on the far left you may be able to get a glimpse of her through the pine trees. Kalluk is just now starting to come out of his annual post-breeding season malaise and is once again playing with his sister Tatqiq. They have been wrestling both on land and in the pool! The keepers are hard at work providing as much novel enrichment as possible for the bears. If you have been watching our Polar Bear Cam recently, you may have seen interesting things like a log-and-palm-frond shelter, foraging piles, and burlap sack “seals”. The bears love it when they tear into a “seal” and find things like favorite toys, bones, and melons. In the near future we hope to bring in a crane to move around the large logs and root balls in the exhibit as well as bring in new furniture. It is the goal of the Polar Team to provide a dynamic and ever-changing space for our bears. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a snow day sometime in the next couple of months! We invite you to come down to see what the bears are up to! Matthew Price is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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