There’s a new, female polar bear at Brookfield Zoo, brought in with hopes that she’ll mate with Brookfield’s male, the zoo announced Tuesday.
Nan, who spent the last 16 years at the Toledo Zoo, went on display Monday in the zoo’s Great Bear Wilderness habitat but is still separated from potential partner Hudson by a metal screen. The two will spend the next couple of weeks seeing and smelling each other, with a plan to begin cohabitation on Feb. 27, International Polar Bear Day.
MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
“She is a proven breeder,” said Amy Roberts, the zoo’s curator of mammals. “She is at an age appropriate to still have cubs. We have a youngish male here that has not had the opportunity to produce a cub yet.”
Hudson was born at Brookfield in 2006, the same year Nan had her one cub, and spent one season with a female but “nothing came of it,” Roberts said. “They just didn’t hit it off correctly.”
With an estimated 26,000 animals in the wild, polar bears are currently listed as a vulnerable species, and their status is expected to change dramatically due to melting polar ice.
Polar bears returned to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo in November after a hiatus to build a new habitat. Officials said at the time that they hoped the male, Siku, would be joined by a female this winter, which could mean two potential breeding pairs within 20 miles of each other. The Chicago zoo, however, does not have a female on site yet, said a spokeswoman.
Nan — which Brookfield says is short for the Inupiaq word “nanutaaq,” meaning “the young of a bear” — comes to the western suburbs on the recommendation of the inter-zoo Species Survival Plan for polar bears, which guides animal distribution and breeding. Brookfield had been waiting a couple of years for a female to be recommended for placement there, Roberts said.
As a wild-born animal, Nan is particularly valuable to the genetic mix of the captive polar bear population, which stands at 57 animals in accredited North American zoos and aquariums.
Zoos haven’t captured wild animals in “decades,” said Roberts, but Nan was found as a cub under a house in Barrow, Alaska, and was moved to her first home, Tacoma, Washington’s, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, because she was deemed too young to survive in the wild.
“She’s not real well-represented yet in the population,” said Roberts, explaining why her wild-born status is important.
Brookfield keepers’ decision to remove the barrier between Hudson and Nan will be determined by “positive interactions,” Roberts said, “which we deem as neither bear being too aggressive or seeming too nervous.”
As for being excited, Hudson was immediately aware of the female bear’s presence, she said: “He knew she was here as soon as she got on grounds. His activity increased.”
sajohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @StevenKJohnson
RELATED STORIES:
Giant anteater pup makes debut at Brookfield Zoo
Australian lungfish ‘Granddad,’ the oldest zoo animal in Chicago, dies
Check out the latest movie reviews from Michael Phillips and the Chicago Tribune.
Check out reviews for all new music releases from Tribune music critic Greg Kot.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
