The Calgary Zoo says Baffin, one of its two male polar bears, died Friday morning after failing to resurface from a plunge pool in the bears’ enclosure.
Jamie Dorgan, the zoo’s interim CEO and chief operating officer, said Baffin and Siku were sparring in the pool around 11:30 a.m., as is normal behaviour for them, when staff noticed Baffin had not surfaced.
The tragedy unfolded as a crowd of visitors watched the antics of both marquee animals, who were playing together in the enclosure’s lower pool just before Baffin disappeared from sight, with a staff member noticing Baffin was missing.
Siku was moved to another area of the bears’ enclosure within the Wild Canada Zone and the zoo closed down that zone soon after.
“Baffin wasn’t seen for a few minutes … soon after that we were able to move Baffin off from the pool,” said Dorgan, adding it’s unsure how long the bear was in medical distress underwater.
“Baffin was deceased in the pool … It’s obviously a huge shock today for our staff and volunteers to learn of this incredibly surprising situation.”
Dorgan said it’s not yet known what might have gone wrong and an investigation is ongoing.
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The death comes during the same week the zoo has been providing media availabilities on how the animals have been coping with the current heat wave.
“We monitor our animals every day of the year to make sure their physical, emotional and nutritional needs are met,” Alison Archambault, the zoo’s director of brand and engagement said during one of those sessions Thursday as the bears frolicked in their enclosure.
She said both animals were enjoying several water and cooling features and were thriving in the heat.
Dorgan said the zoo is doing everything it can to support staff and volunteers stunned by Baffin’s death.
“Our animal care specialists have pretty significant relationships with these animals, for them they’re like family — most of these people spend more time with their animals than they do with their own families,” said Dorgan.
“These polar bears have been a fantastic addition here and we were so excited to offer them a great home. Considering everything appeared outwardly normal before, it’s very, very shocking like any sudden death within a family.”
Seven-year-old Baffin and Siku, eight, arrived from the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg last fall — the first polar bears at the Calgary Zoo since 1999 — before taking up residence in the revamped $40-million Wild Canada Zone, which opened in December.
Their special habitat, the $11.5-million Taylor Family Foundation Polar Bear Sanctuary, is a two-acre enclosure inside the Wild Canada Zone.
It took 26 months for the zoo to prepare the enclosure, the most ambitious project in its history, say officials.
The bears were orphaned as cubs before they were seen wandering near Churchill, Man., by conservation officers. Deemed too young to survive in the wild on their own, they were transported to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre at Winnipeg’s zoo.
After six years living alongside seven other polar bears, it was decided the pair would benefit from a smaller group setting and they were relocated to Calgary.
They arrived in Calgary last October and were unveiled to the public in December.
The zoo will review its handling of the polar bears as it does after every such incident, said Dorgan.
“We always follow through on seeing if there’s anything to learn that would be different,” he said.
Dorgan said it’s still too early to say when the polar bear enclosure would be re-opened to the public.
Animal activists blast zoo
While the cause of Baffin’s death is still to be determined, animal rights activists were quick to criticize the zoo for housing polar bears in the first place.
Michael Alvarez-Toye, an administrator and spokesperson for the Calgary Animal Rights Effort, said he wasn’t surprised one of the zoo’s bears perished.
He argued the zoo never backed up the decision to bring polar bears back to Calgary with hard science. He cited a study out of the University of Oslo in Norway that indicated polar bears struggle in transitioning to a life in captivity.
“The science clearly shows polar bears should not and should never be imprisoned as they are,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter what entertainment you provide them. They’re not animals that live to be amused. They live and thrive in a habitat that provides them everything – from food, shelter, health, energy, all these things. It doesn’t matter if you have painted rocks to make it look like ice. It’s just not enough.”
Camille Labchuk, executive director of Toronto-based Animal Justice, said she was “troubled” to hear of Baffin’s death.
“There have been quite a number of deaths at the Calgary zoo over the years and it was really sad to me to see there was another death,” she said.
“Obviously there’s not much information yet to suggest anything about what happened but I felt troubled by the reports of fighting. Obviously, keeping polar bears – who are arctic creatures – in extreme heat raises concerns as well.”
— With files from Monica Zurowski, Scott Strasser