Hogle Zoo received a Thanksgiving gift, but it wasn't a surprise. Two polar bear cubs were born, as expected, some time during the afternoon of the holiday.
The cubs, which were seen for the first time early last Friday with the use of a surveillance camera set up in their den behind Bear Grotto, will not be on public display until next spring.That is to allow time for the bears to grow and mature and for conditions to be similar to that in the wild. Announcement of the birth was delayed until Wednesday afternoon to make sure the bears were doing OK and to ensure that Chinook, the mother, was accepting her babies, said Stacey Phillips, zoo marketing events coordinator.
The cubs were born to 21-year-old Chinook in a den off the exhibit. She gave birth to two other cubs in late 1996. They are now at the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Biological Park.
The father of those cubs and the latest newborn polar bears is Andy, a 9-year-old polar bear that has been at the zoo since 1995. Chinook has been a popular zoo attraction since 1979, Phillips said.
At birth, polar bear cubs weigh approximately one pound and are less than 12 inches long. Also, they are hairless and blind when born. Gestation takes eight to nine months. In the wild, a mother polar bear nurses her cub for three to four months before she takes them outside.
Chinook, Andy and the new cubs comprise the zoo's total polar bear population. There's not enough room for any more polar bears at the zoo. The cubs will probably be moved to another zoo in a year or two, Phillips said.
"Because of our limited space, we will have to transfer the cubs to another zoo. Also, that will allow for conditions similar to what bears experience in the wild. The bond between a mother and her cubs is usually strong for the first two years. Then she usually sends them on their way. The father does not play an active role and has to be kept separated from the cubs because he probably would attack them," Phillips said.