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| Nuka seems to be a happy fellow. |
21 year old Nuka knows he's a popular fellow, and is happy to see his fans when they come to visit him in the Toledo Zoo. Especially because Ice Queen Crystal has chosen to remain behind the scenes for most of the summer, only making rare appearances.
I visited Nuka a few weeks ago in Toledo. On both days I was there, he was out and about, greeting the visitors, strolling about and swimming. Crystal remained hidden.
During my Toledo visit, Nuka came over to one of the windows where I was waiting with my camera, and posed quite deliberately for me, looking me right in the eye. Maybe he remembered me from my visits to Detroit?
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| My private moment with Nuka |
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| Gazing into my camera lens. |
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| A little smile from Nuka |
One of the employees showed me a photo of Crystal taken the night before, as she had come out during a Friday night private event but only napped in the den. Crystal has the choice of coming out. The people who know her, the employees, say she will probably come out more often in the fall, when cooler weather returns.  |
| Nuka contemplates diving into the pool. |
Nuka does his pacing, to be sure, back and forth between the den entrance and the public window at the end of the enclosure. He also enjoys swimming his laps, jumping into the chilled pool and coming face to face with the visitors in the underwater viewing area.
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| Entertaining the visitors. |
Sometimes he plays with the visitors through the glass, especially the kids. Nuka is a people person.
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| Blowing bubbles, always a big hit |
Nuka and his cousin Lee (in the Columbus Zoo) are the only male bears living in the US who have fathered cubs. Nuka is the father of Astra and Laerke, girls born in the Detroit Zoo in 2020, and Kallik and Kallu, boys born in the Toledo Zoo in 2022. The mother of the Detroit twins is Suka, and her mother Crystal is mother of the Toledo twins.
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| Up close and personal with Nuka |
Nuka's twin brother Koda remains in Memphis alone. It is a mystery to me why he is not in a breeding situation, but there he is, alone.
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| Nuka up close. |
Nuka and his twin brother Koda were born November 25, 2004, in Denver, to Voda and Kavek, who are also parents of Cranbeary of the Alaska Zoo, born three years earlier. |
| Nuka through the door of the den in Toledo. |
Nuka and his twin brother Koda moved to Pittsburgh when they were two years old, and then in 2011 Nuka moved to Detroit alone, leaving Koda in Pittsburgh. In Detroit, Nuka lived with Talini for a time, and then Suka. |
| Suka and daughter Astra in 2021 Detroit. |
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| Suka and Nuka's other daughter Laerke in 2021, Detroit. Laerke had health difficulties shortly after birth and was raised by keepers. She had a rescued grizzly bear companion Jebbie to play with. |
When Suka had her twins, Nuka moved to Toledo, where he fathered Kallik and Kallu, then back to Detroit.
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| Crystal in 2023, nursing the cubs in the den where visitors could watch. |
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| Underwater portrait of Nuka in Toledo. |
When Crystal's new mate wildborn Kali did not work out, the two male bears were switched, and Nuka came back to Toledo, where he is today. They knew that Crystal liked Nuka, and she wasn't fond of Kali at all. Crystal is almost 28 years old, and has had nine cubs. She deserves a comfortable retirement, but the Species Survival program still has hopes that they can breed her.
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Nuka walking the boundary in Detroit in 2021,
with Suka and young Astra watching Dad. |
Nuka also has a lot of fans in Detroit, where he lived for many years, and fathered twin girls Astra and Laerke with Crystal's daughter Suka.
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| Nuka always has a friendly smile. |
When Suka was busy raising Astra, and leaving Laerke to the care of the keepers, Nuka made the move to Toledo where he spent time with Suka's mother Crystal. The result was twin boys Kallik and Kallu, born in 2022.  |
| Kallik and Kallu at age 2 in Toledo |
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| Nuka in Toledo |
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| Nuka in Toledo. He will be 22 this fall. |
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Crystal (center) and her cubs Kallik and Kallu,
fathered by Nuka in Toledo. |
Crystal at the cubs' birthday party. Crystal is in the middle.
Nuka went through a bad time when his reputation suffered after the death of Anana, who had moved to Detroit from Cincinnati. At first it was reported that Nuka, gentle Nuka, had killed her in a breeding attempt. It was later found, but not widely reported, that Anana had suffered heart failure, nothing to do with Nuka. Any wounds she had on her head resulted from Nuka trying to wake her up. Nuka's cubs are now mostly grown and in other zoos.
Astra is in Como Zoo in St. Paul Minnesota. Laerke is in Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma Washington. Kallik is in the Oregon Zoo in Portland, and Kallu is in the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri.
A little family history:
Who is Nuka related to?
A bear named Clark was the great grandfather of Nuka and Koda, and also Cranbeary.
Voda, mother of Cranbeary, and twins Nuka and Koda, was daughter of Commodore who was born in Brookfield Zoo in 1972, the son of Clark. This Clark was also the father of the famous mother Arki, born in 1984 in the Brookfield Zoo and ending her days at the Louisville Zoo, and also of Skeena, born in the Louisville Zoo in 1974.
Arki became the mother of Marty, who was the father of all of Crystal's cubs in Toledo except for the last set of twins. So Marty and Nuka are related. Grandfather of Marty is Clark, who is great grandfather of Nuka.
Skeena of Louisville was the mother of twins Neil and Buzz, born in Louisville in 1995, and Neil is now in the Como Zoo; Icee, who fathered twins Berlin and Yukon in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1989; Ulu born in Louisville in 1985 and the mother of Berit, longtime Cincinnati Zoo resident now living in Henry Vilas Zoo; and triplets Aquila, Aurora, Arcturus born in the Louisville Zoo in 1992. Of these bears, only Yukon has offspring going forward. He was the father of Aurora's four cubs: Lee of Columbus, Haley of Detroit, Anana of North Carolina, and Anoki of Rochester Of these four, only Lee of Columbus has offspring: Kulu now in Como Zoo.
