Wildlife officers discovered the cub wandering around the Prudhoe Bay region of Alaska by itself, and they saw the solar bear acting at ease near people.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grabbed a polar bear cub that was found on its own close to a populated region in Alaska and took it to the Alaska Zoo after it appeared to be at ease around people.
The decision was taken, according to a press release from the organization, by polar bear program biologists and an Alaska Zoo veterinarian out of concern for the orphaned male bear, who is thought to be around 11 months old.
The cub was taken to the zoo in Anchorage after its actions raised “concerns for potential human-bear conflicts,” according to the press release. Until the young polar bear is healthy and the zoo decides it is appropriate for the cub to be on exhibit, the cub won’t be on display to the general public.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the cub has lacerations on its upper lip and weighs 103 pounds, making it somewhat underweight. These lacerations are most likеly the result of the cub eating a fox. Before being captured, officials observed the youngster eating the animal.
Brother bonds 💕 Amur tigers Korol (left/front) and Kunali (right/back) are each other’s constant companions. In this picture by Zookeeper Ryan Moldenhauer, you can really see a side-by-side comparison of their facial markings. No two tigers have the same stripes 🐅 pic.twitter.com/yy5689xn9u
— The Alaska Zoo (@AlaskaZoo) January 15, 2023
According to David Gustine of the polar bear program, who looked into the cub’s circumstances, “the choice to remove this bear from the wild was not made lightly.” “Removing a bear is not beneficial for the individual bear or the natural population, but we felt it was the right course of action in this case,” the statement reads.
Executive director of the Alaska Institution Patrick Lampi stated that the polar bear cub is the zoo’s “first concern,” and because the fox the polar bear was photographed eating was a known rabies carrier in the area, the zoo has “extra extended quarantine procedures in place for this cub.”
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide on the animal’s long-term care after the animal’s quarantine is up, but the polar bear won’t be released back into the wild, where cubs can stay with their mothers for up to 2.5 years. When an orphaned bear named Kali from Point Lay was brought to the Alaska Zoo and later transferred to the Saint Louis Zoo in 2013, it was the final occasion a polar bear was taken from the wild.
The news of the newest addition to the Alaska Zoo comes months after Washington’s Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium put its cherished polar bear Blizzard to sleep in May. Before passing away on May 8th, the bear had chemotherapy and other supportive treatments after receiving a liver cаncеr diagnosis in September 2021.
“We bring the sad news that yesterday, following a sharp fall in his health, our beloved polar bear Blizzard was humanely put to sleep. Blizzard arrived at the Point Defiance Zoo in 1997 after being rеscuеd as an orphaned cub in Churchill, Canada. The old bear was given chemotherapy treatment and other supportive care to delay the diseаsе’s progression after being diagnosed with liver cаncеr in September 2021 “Facebook post from the zoo.
“At age 26, he outlived the average lifespan of polar bears kept in captivity, which is 23 years. Generations of visitors from over the world were motivated to care about his species by Blizzard “added to the post.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has categorized polar bears as thrеаtened, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission has identified them as having a high risk of going extinct.
Source: people.com