Polar bear dies after not resurfacing from pool at Calgary zoo

A polar bear at the Calgary zoo has died after not resurfacing from a pool on Friday.

The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo says its Wild Canada Zone is closed after their bear ‘Baffin’ did not reappear after going underwater.

Zoo officials say their two polar bears were seen sparring in a pool around 11:30 a.m. when one of the bears didn’t surface.

“Baffin wasn’t seen for a few minutes,” says Jamie Dorgan, the zoo’s interim chief executive officer. “The animal care team immediately shifted the other polar bear back off of the habitat so that we could assess the situation.”

The care team was able to confirm that Baffin was dead in the pool.

Dorgan says there were a crowd of visitors around the exhibit at the time of the bear’s death.

He says veterinarians who were called to the scene inspected the bear and weren’t able to see any “outward” signs that would point to a cause of death. Baffin’s body has been sent for an autopsy.

Calgary welcomed two polar bears last year

Six-year-old Baffin and seven-year-old Siku joined the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo in October as part of an $11 million expansion to the Wild Canada Zone.

Dorgan says everything had been going well with the bears and calls the death “a huge shock” to the zoo staff.

“We’re doing everything we can to support the teams, who are of course family with the polar bears,” he says. “Most of these people spend more time with their animals than they do with their own family.”

“These polar bears had been a fantastic addition here.”

Both bears were orphaned before they even turned one, according to the zoo, and were then identified as candidates for transfer to Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Manitoba.

In both cases, the baby bears were found wandering alone in the Churchill area in the northern part of the province and were confirmed to be orphaned before conservation officers became involved.

The zoo said Baffin and Siku were chosen to be transferred to Calgary after consideration was given to the dynamics of the current group and the bear’s individual personalities.

The polar bear habitat at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo was constructed in consultation with industry professionals and experts from Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo.

The habitat includes expansive tree-filled grassy meadows, rock features, several pools ranging in depth from three to five metres, a wading stream, and an unobscured view of the horizon, it opened to the public as part of the Wild Canada grand re-opening on Dec. 1.

With files from Lauryn Heintz