Orphaned polar bear cub getting new home in NY
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An orphaned Alaska polar bear is getting a new temporary home in Buffalo, N.Y.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the 2- to 3-month-old cub is expected to be taken to the Buffalo Zoo sometime this spring to join the zoo’s own cub, Luna.
The Alaska cub is currently being cared for at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage after its mother was killed March 12 by a subsistence hunter near Point Lay on Alaska’s northwest coast.
Point Lay residents asked that the bear be named Kali, pronounced KUL’-lee, the Inupiat Eskimo name for their village. Zoo officials say the cub now weighs about 23 pounds.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the St. Louis Zoo is being considered as a permanent home for Kali.
Kali, the orphaned male polar bear cub from Point Lay, Alaska, along with Alaska Zoo director Pat Lampi, explores the enclosure outside the infirmary at the Alaska Zoo, Friday, March 22, in Anchorage, Alaska. The polar bear cub is expected to be transferred to the Buffalo Zoo sometime this spring where he will be introduced to a female cub. The planned permanent home for Kali is the Saint Louis Zoo, which is building a state-of-the-art polar bear exhibit that is expected to completed in 2015.
Associated Press/The Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hal
Kali, the orphaned male polar bear cub from Point Lay, Alaska, explores the enclosure outside the infirmary at the Alaska Zoo, Friday, March 22, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska. The zoo plans to start daily public viewing of Kali on Saturday. The polar bear cub is expected to be transferred to the Buffalo Zoo sometime this spring where he will be introduced to a female cub.
Associated Press/The Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hal
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