Bears News

Polar bear gets new southern home

Louisville, Ken. - A new polar bear cub now calls Louisville, Kentucky home.

Qannik arrived at the Louisville Zoo on Monday.

She was rescued on Alaska's North Slope in April.

Qannik will live in climate-controlled quarters inside the Louisville Zoo's new Glacier Run exhibit.

Her name means "snowflake" and is also the name of the oil field where she was found.

"It's bittersweet when a cub is abandoned by her mom but it's great that we're here to help Qannik have a great life," Louisville Zoo Director John Walczak said.

The mother and cub couldn't be reunited, which meant if not rescued, Qannik would have likely died.

In fact, she was already malnourished, weighing only 15 pounds when she should have weighed 30.

Her weight is now up to about 70 pounds, but there's still a long road ahead.

Louisville's improved facilities and expert staff are just two reasons why she'll call Louisville home; but to get her "home" took some work.

The flight planning alone to get her to Louisville took two months, as UPS officials prepared what they call a "polar bear express."

"We had to deal with special crating, ground transportation, loading methods, air transportation, aircraft access for handlers and food and supply shipments," UPS' Mitch Nichols said.

She arrived Monday, and brings the total captive population of polar bears in North America to only 79.

"The polar bear is our heritage, it is our lion, it is our tiger, it is our elephant, it is North America's main species," Robert Buchanan of Polar Bears International said.

Qannik won't be out and about just yet at the zoo; officials are going to keep her inside for awhile to make sure she's cultured and can adjust to her new surroundings after such a dramatic and stressful trip.

There's no timeline for when she'll be out and about for the public to see.

She'll join one other polar bear at the zoo, but the two won't meet just yet.

Zoo leaders say they hope to get another polar bear in the future.

Washington's bear dogs make national news - Blogs

I was off all last week, so am late getting this up, but in case you missed it the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Karelian Bear Dog program was featured on Good Morning America last week. The videographer was there when we did our video/photography of three bear cubs being released into the Central Cascades.

Here’s the link to the video on abc.com.

If you look close during a shot of the release of the three bears, you can see me standing in the back of the truck holding a video camera (I’m wearing a black jacket). I used the footage I shot for the story I wrote for the June 19 edition of the paper. That story, and the video, can be found by clicking here.

It’s great to see the dogs and their officers recognized for the work they do to minimize the number of black bears that have to be killed because they won’t leave populated areas. Using the dogs allows them to scare the bears back into the woods, with the intent they’ll never want to come back to civilization.

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