WINNIPEG – Assiniboine Park Zoo has named its newest polar bear cub Kaska.
Kaska, an 11-month-old female bear who arrived from Churchill on Nov. 19, is the latest resident of the zoo’s International Polar Bear Conservation Centre.
The four polar bears – two males and two females – who now live at the zoo will live in the Journey to Churchill exhibit when it opens in spring. The other three are Hudson, Storm and Aurora (the other female).
The name Kaska is derived from the Kaskatamagan Wildlife Management Area, which is in the York Factory First Nation Resource Management Area and in the traditional territory of Shamattawa First Nation, the zoo said.
“It’s very fitting for this cub to carry a name directly associated with the north and chosen by northern peoples,” Dr. Brian Joseph, the zoo’s director of zoological operations, said in a news release. “It’s a great way to acknowledge the origin of these animals and their significance to northern communities.”
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