Cochrane, Ontario

Nanook

Nanook has had a long history of being in captivity. His mother was killed as a ‘problem bear' on December 10, 1982 at the Polaris Mine on Cornwallis Island. Subsequent aging of her premolar tooth revealed that she was 13 years old. The person who shot Nanook's mother did not realize that she had two cubs. A wildlife officer and wildlife technician went out by snowmobile in an effort to find the cubs. On December 16, 1982 the female cub died under unclear circumstances. The male was found. He weighed a healthy 160 lbs. And it was confirmed that he was a coy (cub of the year).

Historically, wildlife officers usually use January 1 st as the birth date for polar bear cubs, but at higher latitudes it is quite possible that Nanook's birth date is sometime in December or in late November. Nanook would have been 12 months old at the time he was relocated. This was too young to have learned how to hunt properly. Thus he arrived at the Calgary Zoo in 1983 to stay until a permanent home could be found. After his stay at the Calgary Zoo, Nanook lived in a series of facilities often under substandard conditions.

Most of his teeth are worn down to stumps. This is not unusual for an old wild bear but for a captive bear it is evidence of unacceptable care. This tells us that he has not had the proper food and veterinary care that he should have had from his previous custodians.

Nanook has learned to open his mouth when we ask him to. One day soon we will need to do dental work on Nanook. To prepare for that we are training him to open his mouth so we can inspect his teeth without us having to anesthetize him. Now that he has learned to open it, the next step is to teach him to keep it open so we can have a longer look. Once he has been assessed then he will be immobilized so the dental work can be done. Don't you wish that someone would immobilize you for your dental work!

We have been collecting information on his history. Reports coming back to us indicated that he spent all day pacing back and forth. We were also told that he was an angry, aggressive bear. When he came to the Habitat we found the opposite. He was a sweet, gentle animal who was lonely. He had lived alone for at least three years and he was starved for some TLC. At other facilities he did not receive significant enrichment, attention, or appropriate diets and we were very concerned about his mental and physical well being.

We know that he was abused at one facility, so much so that he was very nervous when there was more than one man in the bear holding building. It became apparent that he associated abuse with groups of men. To help him adjust to the fact that not all human men will abuse him we allowed several men into the building at various times to hand feed him fish through the mesh. It did not take long before he took fish from men he had not previously met and seemed more comfortable.

Nanook has adapted very well to the Habitat and is now considered fully rehabilitated.   He understands that the zookeepers look after him so he tells the keepers what he needs.

He is an old man who likes to have naps. He gets clean straw for bedding twice a day. One day, one of the zookeepers did not put down clean straw right when Nanook felt he needed it. Bothered by this apparent lack of attention to detail Nanook walked up to the first zookeeper he saw which was Lydia and stared at her, then he looked at the floor and back at her. Lydia understood immediately that he was telling her that he required fresh straw for his nap. We have never forgotten his straw again.

Nanook will stay at the Habitat since he is an old bear and it would be cruel to move him again. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying his retirement!