Randuwa II: Maryland Zoo: Farewell Aoki!

Took this morning to visit the Maryland Zoo and spend one more visit with Anoki. Anoki is our female Polar Bear. She's 23 and has been at our zoo for the past 10 years. She came to us in 2008 from the Albuquerque Biological Park Zoo in New Mexico. The Maryland Zoo has not disclosed where she is going when she leaves on the 18th. I was able to speak with a keeper today who said she is both sad and thrilled by Anoki's new home. It's a state-of-the-art facility, that has chosen to keep her coming under wraps until she is there and settled in. Personally, I found this to be bizarre. Anoki's departure is creating an opening for the transfer of two younger polar bears to the Maryland zoo from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. This, of course is an occasion for much excitement.

The large underwater viewing pavilion at the Polar Bear Watch

You can see Anoki in the center

The zoo's Polar Bear Watch opened in 2003. It has three separate holding areas, two public and one private. When Anoki arrived, she joined two other polar bears making the zoo's collection of three one of the largest in the county. She joined Alaska and Magnet. Alaska died in 2013 of Kidney failure at an estimated age of 24. Magnet died of the same illness in 2015. He was 26. It is possible for a healthy polar bear to live into their mid-30's in captivity. When I asked the keeper if Anoki's departure was related to recent attempts to artificially inseminate her, she said that she wasn't sure if that would be a factor in her future. She added that there was no reason it wouldn't be, but that the main reason was to allow the zoo to receive the two adolescent polar bears from the Columbus Zoo.

Today, Anoki was out and looked so beautiful. She was calm and enjoying the day. Come Tuesday, she will begin the next phase of her life somewhere else. Hopefully, we'll know where that is in the next couple of days, too.

The second public habitat, home to the Grizzly Bears

I also asked the keeper about the future of the two Grizzly Bear sister's Nova and Nita who currently share this habitat. I wondered whether there were any plans to create a new habitat just for them. She said that the present plan is to keep all four bears together within the Polar Bear Watch complex and rotate them between the various outdoor habitats. She explained how the zoo had just made upgrades to the off-public holding area to accommodate the Grizzly Bears.