The Wild Canada zone at the Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo was closed Friday after one of the zoo’s two polar bears — a seven-year-old male named Baffin — did not resurface from the pool and died.
Jamie Dorgan, the zoo’s interim chief executive officer and chief operating officer, said the two bears were sparring around 11:30 a.m. — which he called normal behaviour — when Baffin went into the pool and didn’t resurface.
The zoo has one other polar bear: a second male named Siku. Both bears arrived at the zoo last October from a zoo in Manitoba.
Dorgan said Siku was moved away and Baffin was pulled out the pool, at which point staff confirmed he had died.
“It’s obviously a huge shock today for our staff and volunteers, to learn of this incredibly surprising situation,” Dorgan said.
The body has been taken away and a necropsy will be performed.
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“Our veterinarians, who are trained pathologists, will be looking at every possible thing they can. We do that for every animal who dies here, regardless of if we knew the reason for the death.
“So we’ll be looking for everything.”
The Wild Canada area of the zoo is was completed last fall, following more than two years of construction and redevelopment. The bears were the star exhibit.
The bears — seven-year-old Baffin and eight-year-old Siku — had resided at the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre for several years after being found orphaned as cubs near Churchill, Man., and deemed unlikely to survive without human intervention.
The world-class polar bear habitat covers over two acres of space and the bears appear to be enjoying their new confines.
In addition to the polar bear habitat, Wild Canada contains habitats for muskox, bighorn sheep, woodland caribou, North American river otters, and whooping cranes, as well as an updated Jihad Shibley Rocky Mountain Aviary.
The zoo held a 4 p.m. news conference to share more details. More to come…
— More to come…