Brookfield Zoo bears to get new digs

Jay Petersen, top left, curator of mammals at Brookfield Zoo, shows visitors where a deep pool will be constructed in the Great Bear Wilderness Exhibit, which is scheduled to open in spring. Visitors will be able to watch polar bears swim via an underwater viewing area.

By Gerry Smith Tribune reporter

December 9, 2009

Their new home could make an episode of " MTV Cribs" -- a $27 million estate with spacious outdoor yards, dens with skylights and a 15-foot waterfall spilling into a temperature-controlled pool.

Except the inhabitants are not typical celebrities: They can weigh around 800 pounds, they enjoy foraging for food in the dirt and, before they are moved, they are immobilized with a dart.

Three polar bears and two grizzly bears will move next spring into their new residence, the 6-acre Great Bear Wilderness Exhibit at Brookfield Zoo. On Tuesday, zoo officials gave a preview of the exhibit, which also will feature bison, bald eagles, ravens and Mexican gray wolves.

Zoo officials hope that the exhibit will showcase the positive stories behind the conservation movement by featuring animals that nearly went extinct but have made a comeback because of efforts to protect them.

"Each one of those animals has a conservation story," said Stuart Strahl, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Zoological Society.

But zoo officials are well-aware that the bears are their top attraction. The new bear exhibit will replace the zoo's current bear habitat, which had not been updated since the 1930s; had no heating or cooling; and was made largely of concrete, which took a toll on the bears' joints, said Mike Brown, the zoo's lead bear keeper.

The new exhibit, which will open May 8, is three times larger than the old habitat and more representative of the bears' natural surroundings, allowing them to rub on trees, dig in dirt and climb on boulders.

The bears are Arky, 25, a female polar bear; Aussie, 24, a male polar bear; Hudson, 3, the offspring of Arky and Aussie; and Jim and Axhi, two 15-year-old male grizzly bears who were orphaned as cubs in Alaska.

Zoo keepers believe that Arky is pregnant but cannot be sure until she would give birth. If she does, she will have access to an igloo-shaped maternity den and a shallow pool where she can teach her cubs how to swim before releasing them in one of the 80,000-gallon pools.

Meanwhile, the bears' handlers will train them to assist in their own health care by opening their own mouths so staffers can inspect their teeth and putting their paws up to a window so keepers can make sure they are not injured. For their effort, the bears will be rewarded with a treat -- a mixture of ground beef, vegetable and ground dog chow baked into a loaf and placed on the end of a stick.

Visitors can watch polar bears swim in the pools up-close through an underwater viewing area while learning how climate change is affecting their natural habitats.

Zoo officials hope that such features will help visitors connect with the bears on a deeper level, making the exhibit a model for enlisting the public to help with preserving wilderness and wild animals. The zoo's shops will even sell Grizzly Blend coffee, with the profits going toward buying and protecting threatened grizzly habitat.

"What we want to convey is that there are solutions to conservation problems, and they don't just happen," Strahl said. "They depend on people, on you and me."

Courtesy of John Goodall