WINNIPEG – Polar bears Hudson and Storm met for the first time at the Assiniboine Park Zoo on Wednesday.
Hudson, who was born at the Toronto Zoo, has been living at the Assiniboine Park Zoo since January 2013; Storm arrived in early October after the wild bear attacked a man in Churchill, Man., and was put in that town’s “polar bear jail,” where problem bears are held until they can be transported elsewhere.
The two bears, both two-year-old males, were kept separate as Storm adapted to living in the zoo.
“Yesterday we introduced him to Hudson for the first time, and there’s no doubt that the two of them are going to be great friends,” Dr. Brian Joseph, director of zoological operations at Assiniboine Park Zoo, said in a news release.
Storm will make his public debut on Saturday. The zoo is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and the two bears are on display at the International Polar Bear Conservation Centre.
The two bears will be housed separately for now, but they will continue to get to know each other gradually through a number of introductions, the zoo said.
“Storm is a great bear and we’re very excited for him to meet the public this weekend,” Joseph said.
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