Big changes for Crystal's family

Crystal in summer of 2023

The big news this week is the switcheroo of bears between the Toledo Zoo and the St. Louis Zoo. The move was announced after the fact. It seems that last Friday, February 28, was the last day that twins Kallik and Kallu were out in the public view in Toledo. The next thing we knew, the move had already taken place and the two year old boys were in St. Louis. 

Kallu and Kallik

Two year old Kallu and Kallik in the pool in Toledo.

In exchange, wildborn Kali (pronounced Cully) made the trip from the St. Louis Zoo to the Toledo Zoo, where the boys' mother Crystal was waiting for her new companion. 

Kali gets an ice treat, summer of 2016 in St. Louis.

Kali swims in St. Louis.

The Toledo Zoo is now repairing and upgrading their polar bear habitat, so no polar bears can be seen. In the meantime Kali will quarantine and then he and Crystal can be introduced to each other. I am not sure how much of this year's breeding season will remain by the time they meet.

Baby Kali at the Buffalo Zoo

Kali's story got off to a sad start. He was born in the winter of 2012-13 in the wilds of Alaska. A hunter mistook his mother, who was very large, for a male and killed her. Realizing that this was a nursing mother, the hunter retraced the mother bear's steps to the den and found young Kali. The hunter loaded the cub onto his snowmobile, and brought him to civilization. Kali lived in the Alaska Zoo for awhile, gaining weight and strength, and then moved to the Buffalo Zoo, where a young girl bear Luna needed a playmate.

Kali and Luna play together

Luna and Kali splash around.

Young Kali

 Luna's mother Anana was not a good mother, and ignored her, so she had been raised by keepers. The two young cubs, about the same age, hit it off and had a couple of years teaching each other to be bears.

Kali all grown up

Kali moved to the St. Louis Zoo, where he has been living alone ever since. He has grown to be a very large male. As property of Fish and Wildlife, he had been banned from the breeding program until about a year ago. His wild genes are valuable. So he has come to Toledo to find Crystal. If she is interested, we will see.

Crystal with Suka and Sakari in 2013

Crystal turned 26 years old this past November, which is at the far edge of breeding capability, but she is a proven breeder, having raised nine cubs, and the US has only three proven female breeders. The other two are her daughters Suka and Aurora, and they are already with mates.

The oldest polar bear to give birth, to my knowledge, was Uslada of the zoo in St. Petersburg Russia. Uslada was born in November of 1987. Just weeks after she turned 26 years old, she gave birth to her 16th cub Zabava in 2013.

Crystal nursing Sakari and Suka in 2013

If Crystal were to give birth next fall, it would be around the time she is turning 27 years old, so she would become the oldest. 

Crystal nursing Bo in 2019

Becoming a mother is exhausting for a polar bear. There are months of denning awaiting birth, and then months afterwards of not eating but having to produce milk for the cubs. Then when the cubs are old enough, the polar bear mom has to teach them important lessons through play, and guard them to keep them safe. If it is a single cub, mama is the only playmate, so that is even more demanding.

Crystal and probably mama's boy Kallu.

Crystal is the mother or grandmother of all the polar bears under the age of 10 in the US, except for Kava, a wildborn rescue female now in the Alaska Zoo. There is a problem finding suitable mates who are not closely related, and any cubs resulting from this new pair will also be offspring of Crystal, so I am not sure what we will gain, even if the cubs carry Kali's wildborn genes.

Crystal was born in Monde Sauvage Safari Parc in Aywaille, Belgium in 1998, where she had an older sister, Blanche. Crystal came to Toledo when she was about a year and a half, in the spring of 2000, just as the fine new polar bear habitat at the Arctic Encounter was opening. A young male polar bear named Marty was waiting for her. Another female bear, wildborn Nanuyaak, usually called Nan, arrived in 2001.

Aurora and Anana in Columbus in 2011

Crystal raised twin girls Aurora and Anana, born to Crystal and Marty in 2006. The girls moved to a beautiful meadow habitat at the Columbus Zoo. Aurora has become mother to Nora, twins Nuniq and Neva, and Kulu. Anana gave birth to Amelia Gray. Sadly, Anana passed away a few years ago.

Crystal and baby Siku

Next was Siku, born in 2009. Crystal did a fine job of mothering him, and in the fall of 2011 he moved to the Louisville Zoo where he lived next to but not with his grandmother Arki, who had retired from Brookfield Zoo. Siku currently lives in Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago with Talini.

Suka and Sakari in 2013

In 2012 boy and girl twins Sakari and Suka were born. Sakari now lives in the Buffalo Zoo with Luna, and Suka lives in the nearby Detroit Zoo with Nuka, who is the father of Crystal's last set of twins Kallik and Kallu, as well as Suka's twins Laerke and Astra. 

Crystal and Hope in 2016

Hope was born in 2015. She moved to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City where she played with Aurora's daughter Nora. Hope now lives in Brookfield Zoo in Chicago with Hudson, brother of Marty.

Crystal and Bo in 2019

Borealis, usually called Bo, was born in 2018 and in 2020 moved to Henry Vilas Zoo in Wisconsin. Just last year, he moved to the Louisville Zoo, where he is companion to wildborn Qannik, who has now gotten permission from Fish and Wildlife to associate with boy bears.

Marty died in late 2021. Since Crystal's daughter Suka had given birth to twins in nearby Detroit, Suka's mate Nuka was on his own, so he was brought to Toledo, where he and Crystal got along very well.

Kallu and Kallik in June of 2023.

Twin boys Kallik and Kalu were born in late 2022. Nuka had gone back to Detroit, so it was just Crystal and her cubs. She took excellent care of the babies, but probably was happy they were twins and could entertain each other while she rested and watched. She seemed tired.

Crystal raised the boys for two years. Recently she showed signs that she was getting annoyed with them, and so they were separated. Now the boys are off on a new adventure in St. Louis. 

Crystal was ready for her retirement, but now there is a new suitor who has arrived, and we will see what happens.

Yes, Crystal is 26 years old.

Birthday parties for Crystal and the cubs last November. A party on Sunday for Crystal and a party on Monday for the boys.

Nan, now the oldest polar bear in a US zoo, lives in the Como Zoo in Minnesota with Neil, the oldest male polar bear in the country, and Crystal's grandson Kulu. 

Relatives in Europe

For those wondering about Crystal's overseas relatives, her sister Blanche died last year, but her daughter Qannik still lives in Monde Sauvage. Blanche's son Nanook lives in Skandinavisk Dyrepark in Denmark, and there he has a son Siku and a daughter Nuno, who also has twin daughters, Nivi and Anori.  Nanook's son Nanu lives in France.