Meet
Glacier, Kootz, Denali, and Sitka, the newest residents of the Wildlife
Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo. The furry foursome—one young grizzly
and three brown bear cubs—are orphans, rescued in separate incidents in
Montana and Alaska.
The bears share a common history—their
mothers were killed after habitually wandering too close to humans. The
three brown bear cubs are siblings, born in early 2009 on Baranof
Island in southeastern Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game
rescued the orphaned trio and temporarily transferred them to Fortress
of the Bear, an education and rescue center in Sitka, Alaska. The young
grizzly bear, a male from Glacier National Park in Montana, was
originally rescued by park rangers and kept for a few days at
Washington State University’s Bear Center.
The playful bears are busy exploring their new home at the zoo’s Big Bears exhibit, and clearly enjoy each other’s company (
see video).
“All
four bear cubs are healthy and adjusting well to their new
surroundings,” said Jim Breheny, Bronx Zoo Director and WCS Senior Vice
President of Living Institutions. “We are happy to provide a home for
these four animals that would not have been able to survive in the wild
without their mothers.”
The bears are named for their origins.
Of the three cubs, the largest male is named Kootz, which means brown
bear in the Tlinget language; the smaller male, Denali, is named for
the national park in Alaska; and the female, Sitka, is named after the
fishing town where she and her siblings lived for a month after the
rescue. Glacier, the young male grizzly, is a year older than the
Alaskan bears and named for the national park in Montana where he was
born.
WCS Conservation Efforts
The bears remind us of
the challenges we face in finding solutions for coexisting with
wildlife. As people continue to develop land and build homes in areas
that are prime wildlife habitat, encounters between people and bears
have become more frequent.
WCS conservationists are work in
the Adirondacks and the American West to educate the public on how to
reduce human/bear conflicts. By raising awareness of the importance of
keeping human food away from bears, as well as guiding land use
decisions that will minimize rural sprawl, WCS is helping to improve
relations between bears and people.