Bear Apparent
More Info on Arki and Her New Cub

Get Ready for a Big Baby
The approximately 25-35 pound cub, was about the size of a newborn puppy and weighed only one-and-a-half pounds at birth. When full grown, he will weigh between 775 to more than 1,500 pounds and cound stand at 12 feet tall.

In preparation for the debut, the cub's exhibit pool and moat were drained and lined with bales of straw. This precaution is only temporary while the cub explores its new environment. After several weeks, water gradually will be added to the pool, at which time Arki will teach her cub to swim.

Experienced Parents
Arki, 22, born at Brookfield Zoo, has had five successful litters, including her most recent one. Her mate, Aussie, was born in 1985 at Adelaide Zoo in Australia and the following year he came to Brookfield Zoo to be paired with Arki. The two adults were reintroduced to each other in February 2006 on a recommendation from the coordinator of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP). An SSP is a cooperative population management and conservation program for select species in zoos and aquariums in North America. Each SSP manages the breeding of a species in order to maintain a healthy and self-sustaining population that is both genetically diverse and demographically stable. In 2006, only four polar bear cubs, including the one at Brookfield Zoo, were born in North American Zoos.

Including this cub and two litters being reared at Toledo Zoo in Ohio, there are 96 polar bears in 35 U.S. zoos accredited by AZA. The sire of the three cubs in Ohio is Marty, Arki’s first cub.

The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages Brookfield Zoo, has been a leader in successfully breeding polar bears. In the early 1970s, animal care staff researched literature on polar bear dens in the wild and replicated maternity dens in the bears’ off-exhibit space. A tunnel leads to a semi-circular inner chamber, and the entrance faces away from service doors to provide the bears privacy. (In the wild, polar bears often den in packed snow or dry streambeds.) Since the dens were created, CZS has seen a dramatic increase in its polar bear cub success rate. In the last 10 years, CZS is one of only 12 institutions to raise a cub.

Big Trouble for a Big Bear
It is estimated that between 22,000 and 25,000 polar bears are in the wild, though exact numbers are not known in their natural habitat of the circumpolar Arctic: U.S. (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. In February 2005, several conservation organizations petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior to list polar bears on the “threatened” species list of the Endangered Species Act. In late 2006, the Secretary of the Interior announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be gathering additional information and scientific data during the next 12 months before making its final decision whether to list the species on the threatened list.

There has been a noticeable warming trend in portions of the polar bears’ habitat, threatening the species with extinction by the end of this century. For instance in Canada’s Hudson Bay, the ice that polar bears use to hunt seals—the mainstay of their diet—is melting two weeks earlier than it did 20 years ago, which means they have less time to hunt and store up needed fat. This is a particularly serious problem for the females because they use so much energy to nurse their cubs. Researchers report that there has been a 7 percent reduction in ice cover in just 25 years and a 40 percent loss of ice thickness. It is predicted there will be a mostly ice-free Arctic summer by 2080 if present trends continue. Other threats to the bears include pollution, poaching, and industrial disturbances. Also, hunting could become a threat if populations are not well managed.