Moving season for the bears

 Now that the summer is over, and weather is cooler, some of the planned moves for polar bears have taken place, or are coming right up.

Earlier this year, Haley moved from Memphis to the Detroit Zoo, where both she and Suka are currently denning up. Also in Detroit is Nuka, twin brother of Koda, whom Haley left behind in Memphis.

Haley

In August, almost 9 year old Amelia Gray, daughter of the late Anana and Nanuq in the Columbus Zoo, moved from the Oregon Zoo in Portland, where she lived with her sister/cousin Nora, to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, where she joined Hudson and her Aunt Hope. Hudson is brother of Amelia Gray's late grandfather Marty of Toledo. With almost all the younger bears related to the Crystal-Marty family, the officials are trying their best to match up possible polar bear breeding couples.

Amelia Gray

An upcoming move will split up Crystal's twins Kallik and Kallu, born in Toledo almost three years ago and currently in St. Louis. Their father is Nuka of the Detroit Zoo. Kallik will moved to the Oregon Zoo, and current resident Nora will move to the Henry Villas Zoo to be with older lady Berit.  So Kallik will be alone at the Oregon Zoo and Kallu will also be alone at the St. Louis Zoo for the time being. 

Kallik and Kallu

Nora, who was born with a bone condition and was raised by her keepers, is the daughter of Aurora and the late Nunuq, born in Columbus almost 10 years ago. While living in Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, she suffered a severe bone break, and had to have extensive surgery involving screws and other metal parts to stabilize her paw. She is totally recovered now, but may not be good breeding material due to her bone problem. Even so, She is moving to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison Wisconsin where they plan to bring in a male for her at some time in future, in addition to Berit currently living there. The Henry Vilas Zoo plans to move the two grizzly bear sisters to another zoo so the polar bears will have two enclosures.

Nora in Salt Lake City

Twins Astra and Laerke, almost four years old and living at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma Washington, have been split up, with Astra going to Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota, where there are currently three bears. Young Kulu, almost six years old, is to be Astra's mate. Since Astra's mother Suka and Kulu's mother Aurora are sisters, Astra and Kulu are first cousins.

 The other two Como bears, Nan and Neil, are elderly and quite beloved there, but will not always be around so Como Zoo is looking to the future with a new breeding pair. Laerke  and Astra were born at the Detroit Zoo, daughters of Suka and Nuka. Laerke was failing within a few days after birth, so was taken into the care of zookeepers, where she faced challenges. To give Laerke company, a grizzly bear cub named Jebbie was brought in to be her companion. Astra and Laerke were finally allowed to play together when they were about two years old, and were moved to the Point Defiance Zoo together. Soon Laerke will be alone again, but she did grow up for many months with just human company, so she should be comfortable with that.

Astra in Detroit

Cubs this year?

To speculate on who might be giving birth in the coming few months, I am hopeful about Aurora and Lee in Columbus, and Suka and Nuka in Detroit. Wildborn Qannik in Louisville is a long shot this year since she injured her paw just as her first breeding season started with her new companion Bo, but she is denned up anyway. Haley in Detroit may have been bred by Nuka's brother Koda in Memphis last spring before she moved, and she is denned up as well.

Luna and Sakari in Buffalo have had many years of trying, but this year may be different, for I hear they are doing something different in Buffalo.

Nikita and Neva in Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City are also a possibility.

Although the powers that be brought wildborn orphan Kali from St. Louis to Toledo to be mate to Crystal in hopes for more cubs from this champion mother, I doubt that will happen. Crystal will be 27 years old this fall, and as far as I know, the oldest mother to give birth was Uslada in St. Petersburg at age 26. I have not heard much news about Crystal and Kali being together during breeding season.

In Europe, so many of the bears have been split into boy groups and girl groups, to prevent overpopulation, just the opposite problem the US zoo are facing.

Malik nursing cubs Imaq and Inuk in Aalborg.

I am hopeful that my Rasputin and Malik in Aalborg  Denmark, will produce cubs this year. I am pinning my main hopes on this pair. Both have proven fertile.

In Hanover, we  have Sprinter and Milana (also Vera is there), so that might work. We also have Nuka's twin sister Qilak in Pairi Daiza, where there are twin brother Bely and Cery, although I don't know if they have been together. 

15 year old Qannik, daughter of Toledo Crystal's sister Blanche, is with Cora's son Nanuk in Zoo Sauvage in Belgium. 

European moves

In Europe, Anna and Elsa have left their mother Valeska in Bremerhaven's Zoo Am Meer, and have moved to Zoo Brno in the Czech Republic, where longtime resident Cora was already enjoying the new enclosure. Anna and Elsa are soon to be six years old. There is a trend in European zoos to form all girl groups, or all boy groups, since their breeding program has been so successful, and they do not want a surplus of cubs with no home to go to.

Last May, Anouk left her mother Victoria in Hamburg and moved to to a brand new polar bear home in  Lumigny Safari Resort just outside of Paris. Anouk will be three years old in December. Her father is the late Kap. In June 10 year old Nicky arrived from Zoo de Cerza, also in France, where she had been living with her twin sister Simone. Those twins are offspring of Frimas and Henk in Eindhoven Zoo in the Netherlands.

Lazy summer days for Aurora and Lee

 

Aurora on land, Lee in the water

24 year old Lee and 17 year old Aurora are enjoying the last days of summer in the Columbus Zoo by napping, lazing around in the sun, and taking an occasion dip in their deep salt water pool. 

Aurora napping in the late summer sun.

Aurora is sleeping more and more, and wanting to be inside as denning season approaches. She has gained 250 pounds over the summer, now weighing in at 800 pounds. Her guy Lee returned from his stay at the Louisville Zoo in February of 2023, but no cubs resulted last winter, but baby hopes are high for this year.

My U.S. polar bear cub forecast predicts good chances for both Aurora, and also for her younger sister Suka, who lives in the Detroit Zoo with Nuka. Aurora is the mother of five cubs already, and Suka has been pregnant three times, with one successful birth and raising of twins (with help from the keepers for Laerke).

Lee says hello

A friendly smile

Lee dragging around a blanket toy

Lee weighs in at 1100 pounds. He has been around the block a few times, born in Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester NY in 1999, and spending time in Lincoln Park in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit and Denver, but not fathering any cubs. He came to Columbus for the first time in November of 2018, where he got along just fine with twin sisters Aurora and Anana. The arrival of Aurora's son Kulu in 2019 meant that things were getting crowded in Columbus, so he was sent to the Louisville Zoo in 2020, coming back in 2023. By that time, Anana had passed away, so it was just Aurora waiting for him.

Aurora and Anana in 2011.
The keepers painted Aurora's paw so they could tell the girls apart.

I talked to a docent at the zoo about the loss of Anana. He said that she had had a cold, some sort of respiratory illness. It didn't seem too severe, but it quickly turned into encephalitis, and Anana's body just couldn't fight off the infection. It was suspected she had some sort of autoimmune condition.  In mid October of 2022, she died one month short of her 16th birthday.  

Young Kulu and his Auntie Anana in 2021. They were happy playmates.

Aurora and Lee's son Kulu now lives in the Como Zoo in St. Paul Minnesota with two elderly bears, Nan and Neil. Neil is brother of the late Icee, who was grandfather of Kulu's father Lee.

Elderly Neil and young Kulu in Como Zoo in 2022.

I visited the Columbus Zoo on the first day of September, and it promised to be a hot one. Lee and Aurora had been out earlier in the morning, but had gone inside for their breakfast. At about 11:15 each morning, the bear keepers present a morning snack to either the neighboring Alaskan Brown Bears Brutus and Buckeye, or to the polar bears. This day, it was the polar bears. Lee had been playing with an indestructible blue rug, but came over to the big pool when it was time. Aurora had been napping in the sun, and she was not interested in moving. 

Lee heads for snack time at the pool

Aurora would rather sleep than snack.

Lee had some snacks, and swam around for a bit, but was attracted to the window, possibly to a bag of strawberries that someone had left on the floor. Did Lee know that this was some delicious food on the other side of the glass? He did seem interested in that one spot.

Lee is curious.

Lee is just checking things out.

Ah, something yummy...

Sad. Lee can't get to the strawberries through the window.

Finally Aurora decided to wake up and come check things out.

Aurora thinks about coming into the pool
while Lee flirts with a little girl.

 She watched Lee play with the folks at the window, and then swam for a bit, playing with a plastic lid. 

The lid makes a great toy.

By this time, Lee was napping on a rock, half in the water and half out.

Good way for Lee to keep cool during his nap.

Aurora scratches her back on some rocks.

 After some water play, Aurora shook off the drops and headed for her den, where she would probably nap in air conditioned comfort for the afternoon. When I left, Lee was still sleeping in the shallow water.

Aurora heads for the den.

Aurora has always had her cubs in November, so we will wait and see. She is already mother to Nora, who lives in the Portland Zoo, twins Nuniq (now in Kansas City) and Neva (now in Salt Lake City), and young Kulu in Como Zoo. The father of Nora, Nuniq and Neva was the late Nanuq.

Aurora's cubs
 - a poster on the wall.

Family connections

Aurora and her twin sister were born in the Toledo Zoo in 2006, the offspring of Belgium born Crystal and the late Marty. Those parents went on to produce Siku, twins Suka and Sakari, Hope and Bo, and after Marty died, Crystal's new guy was Nuka from Detroit, and they had twins Kallik and Kallu almost two years ago.

Crystal's sister in Belgium, Blanche, was mother of Nanuk of Skandinavisk Dyrepark in Denmark, where he fathered Danish Siku, twins Nanu and Nuno, and Nuno now has twin cubs, so Aurora has cousins in Denmark.

Lee is the son of the late Aurora and Yukon of Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester NY. His siblings are twin sister Anana of North Carolina, Haley of Memphis and Anoki, now back at home in Rochester. Aurora was sister of the late Denali, who went to Japan and fathered eight cubs there, so Lee is related to many Japanese bears.

Lee's mother Aurora (many bears have been named Aurora and Anana) was half sister Kiska of ABQ Biopark, and of  the late Anana, mother of Luna. Lee's great grandfather Bruno was father of CW, who went to Europe and was mother and grandmother of many cubs there, so Lee has European cousins. Lee's father Yukon and his twin sister Berlin were the only polar bear cubs born and raised in the Cincinnati Zoo. Yukon and Berlin's father Icee was brother to Neil, now living in the Como Zoo with his great nephew Kulu.

Kulu is one big little guy

Kulu

For polar bear fans, 2020 has been a disappointing year so far with zoo trips out of the question for so many months, and Europe not even a possibility. With so many cubs to potentially visit in Europe, and even Flocke's triplets in France, sadly all travel plans had ground to a halt. I hadn't been to a zoo since Qannik's birthday party in Louisville in January.

But there is one cub I have really been looking forward to meeting, and he is very close by. Kulu is the only cub in the United States, well, really the only cub in this hemisphere, in a zoo setting anyway.

Kulu and Aurora on the big rock

When would I get my chance to finally meet this little guy, who was born Thanksgiving Day in 2019?

Kulu's father Lee

I had gone up to Columbus in November of 2019, it seems so long ago, to see Lee, father of the cub.

By the time Kulu was six months old, the Columbus Zoo had been closed for three months. Kulu had gotten used to the outside area with no one to watch him but his mother and the keepers. The zoo finally announced they would open on June 12. I got my timed ticket for 10 a.m. on Friday, June 19. I would finally get to meet Kulu. 

I was disappointed that, although the zoo had told the public that masks were highly recommended, about 90 percent of the people were not wearing a mask or keeping their distance.  The zoo was keeping the attendance fairly low, and I had a KN-95 mask, so I felt fairly safe, but it still made me wary, and it was harder to get photos with so many people crowding to see darling Kulu.

Kulu bites his paw

Swimming Kulu 

Kulu with his Blue Ball 

Blue Bucket

Kulu 

Kulu watches everything

Kulu balancing on the logs

Kulu isn't a cute little tiny cub anymore. Well, he is still cute, but he's a roly poly strong little guy weighting 180 pounds (about 82 Kg) at not quite seven months of age.

Kulu is growing every day. He is such a big boy

He followed his mom Aurora around for awhile. Sometimes they would disappear into the private area on the left, and I think Aurora prefers to feed her cub without an audience.

Mother Aurora on the big rock pillar

When Mother Aurora decided to climb onto the big stone pillar over the diving pool for a nap, Kulu went off on his own, being very confident and independent. He played with his toys, especially a small red plastic carton. He also likes his blue ball, his red top, and his red block. I imagine his keepers change his toys out frequently to keep him amused.

Kulu chews

Kulu likes the smell ports under the stone pillar and the wooden dock too. The keepers can disperse interesting perfumes and other smells there to keep him interested.

Kulu at one of smell ports, wearing some seaweed

The cub also keeps an eye on the live trout. His mother is trying to teach him to catch the fish, and he dives in to try, but so far, has not been successful. Still, he tries.

There's Mother Aurora, and maybe a fish?

Looking for his red toy or a fish?

Splash! Kulu isn't so good at diving yet.

Trying for another fish.  And trying to improve his diving form.

He is not an adept diver. He usually just falls headfirst into the pool, but he does love swimming around, trying to catch the elusive fish. 

Mother Aurora strolls as Kulu plays

As Kulu plays, he keeps an eye on his mom, just checking to see that she is still there. Aurora is always aware of where her little cub is, even when she is napping.

Kulu

Going for the Blue Ball

Kulu trying to pay equal attention to all his toys

Kulu loves to swim, spending most of his time in the water

Aurora is an experienced mother. She gave birth to her first cub Nora in 2015, a cub who was raised by keepers and went to another zoo before she was one year old. Nora is now at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City with her Aunt Hope, Aurora's little sister of the same age as Nora. 

In 2016, Aurora gave birth to twins, Neva and Nuniq, and her twin sister had Amelia Gray. The twin sisters and their families alternated days in the public viewing area, and elderly Daddy Nanuq came out at night. This time Aurora took great care of her cubs.

After old Nanuq passed away, and Neva and Amelia Gray moved to Maryland and young Nuniq moved to Madison Wisconsin, a new male bear arrived in Columbus to be a companion for twins Anana and Aurora. Lee was born in 1999 the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester NY. Lee's mother was Aurora, and his father was the late Yukon, twin brother of Berlin, born in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1989. Lee had moved around a bit, had been in Lincoln Park, Milwaukee, Detroit and Denver, and had never fathered any cubs before Kulu. His genes are especially valuable as his sisters Anoki and Hayley, and twin sister Anana (of North Carolina) have not produced cubs. He is a descendant of Olaf and Olga, through Shep. He is also descended from Bruno of the Memphis Zoo, so is related to many of the European polar bears.

The Columbus Zoo currently alternates having Aurora and her cub Kulu in the public exhibit on one day, and Lee and Anana on the next day. The schedule is subject to change. The pair not on public view has a spacious hidden enclosure with pool.

Kulu keeping his eye on everything

He is a curious cub

Kulu has a secret sheltered area under the big rock pillar where he can hide
and still watching everything, including his mom up top.

Little Kulu asks his mom to wake up
 and come into the water to play

A little wet after a dip in the pool. Shaking it off.

Aurora's grandma Arki (her father Marty's mother) loved lettuce sandwiches, and it seems that Aurora does too. Aurora gobbled down the bread and the Romaine lettuce. Kulu had some too. 

Aurora has some bread thrown into the water

Romaine Lettuce, a favorite

Like her late Grandma Arki, Aurora likes lettuce

Kulu wants some too

Kulu steals a few leaves

Yes, she loves her lettuce

Kulu loves his mom

Lettuce is good for a mask, too. We are supposed to wear masks.

It was such a treat to see Kulu and his playful antics. Mother Aurora was fun too. She loves to play and can be a silly girl.

The Columbus Zoo has a docent stationed in the polar bear viewing area, so I was glad to have someone to answer my questions.  I hope to get back to Columbus soon to see just how much Kulu has grown. He's the only cub I can go see for the time being, so he had better get used to my visits. 

Bye for now, Kulu