Kid Territory:Critters: Polar Bear Trio

Zoo names: Chinook, Kalluk, and Tatqiq
Species: polar bear
Location: San Diego Zoo, Polar Rim

Their story

The San Diego Zoo has three polar bears. All three were orphaned in the wild as young cubs. On the polar bear team roster is Kalluk, a male polar bear, his sister, Tatqiq, and Chinook, who is not related to the brother-sister pair. Their names are words from the Inupiaq language: Kalluk means “thunder,” Tatqiq means “moon,” and Chinook means “wind.”

Brother and sister bear

Kalluk and Tatqiq were only a few months old when they arrived at the San Diego Zoo in March 2001 from Alaska. Their mother had been wearing a radio collar for research purposes. When a sensor went off on her radio collar, the researchers went to check on her and the cubs. They found that she had been shot and killed, and her cubs were nowhere to be found. Thankfully, someone sighted them later that day, and they were rescued. Since they were so young, they would not have survived without their mother and were soon transferred to the San Diego Zoo where they have lived ever since.

Brown bear

Chinook also came to us as an orphan, but we do not know what happened to her mother. She was already around one year old when she came to the San Diego Zoo in May 1996. If you see a brown polar bear, it’s probably Chinook—she loves to roll in the dirt! Chinook’s favorite pastimes are napping and getting as dirty as possible. She is both cunning and confident, and she seems to enjoy keeping her keepers on their toes. Chinook pretends to be resting in her bedroom and then pounces with great glee as a keeper walks by!

Fun for bears

All three bears have a playful side and love their enrichment items. Some of their favorites are slippery, new plastic balls, burlap bags they like to wear on their heads, and palm fronds they can roll on.

Arctic bears in San Diego?

Many people wonder how polar bears are able to live comfortably in an open-air exhibit here in balmy San Diego. In the harsh Arctic weather, polar bears need a thick blubber layer to keep warm, stay afloat in the water, and store energy. Polar bears in San Diego don’t need the thick layer, so the keepers offer lots of low-calorie foods to munch on instead of the high-fat diet of seals they would eat in the wild.  You may see our polar bears crunching on carrots, romaine lettuce, or melon, and some of their favorite treats include grapes and crickets. They also receive meat, fish, and cow femur bones in their diet.

A hearing study

Polar bears are intelligent animals with excellent problem-solving skills and a great capacity for learning. The San Diego Zoo believes that all our Zoo animals are ambassadors for their wild counterparts, which was why we trained our polar bears to participate in a hearing study. Using positive reinforcement techniques, our bears were trained to touch a target when they heard a tone. The results of this hearing study are being used in the Arctic to protect polar bears from man-made noise due to industrial activities. This information is especially important in areas where polar bear mothers make their dens.

More training

Our bears have participated in other studies and have learned behaviors to help their keepers and veterinarians care for them. For example, they open their mouth on cue so their teeth can be checked. They also sit, lie down, and go onto a scale so we can weigh them. All three bears know their own names and come off exhibit when they are called.

See them

The next time you visit the San Diego Zoo, please take the time to come visit our polar bears in Polar Rim. When you’re not at the Zoo, you can catch their antics on our Polar Cam. Polar Bears International (PBI) is a research partner with the San Diego Zoo; for photos, videos, bear tracking, and more information about polar bears, you can go to their Web site at www.polarbearsinternational.org.

More

San Diego Zoo
Animal Bytes: Polar Bear
Job Profiles: Taking Care of Animals
Polar Cam
Read Blog posts about our polar bears