![]() That was the case for Nora, the Columbus Zoo’s first cub to survive in recent years. A newborn usually weighs about 1 pound and has a survival rate of just 50%, even in captivity. Zookeepers don’t expect she will but won’t know for sure until early January.Īfter birth, a fragile newborn cub still faces challenges. They often experience false pregnancies, exhibiting symptoms without actually producing offspring.įor example, 13-year-old Anana, Aurora’s twin sister who also lives at the Columbus Zoo, also bulked up and went into a separate den this fall, but she hasn’t yet given birth. There is also no pregnancy test for bears, and accessing the carnivores for ultrasounds is difficult. Aurora, for example, added more than 200 pounds to her usual 550 or so pounds. Many factors affect polar bears, making it difficult to reproduce both in captivity and the wild.Īfter a mating in the spring, a fertilized egg doesn't implant until months later, after the female puts on enough weight to survive winter hibernation. “Every single birth is unbelievably significant.” “With a sample size so small, there’s no margin for error,” Smith said. Knowing they’ve prepared a mother bear for success is a surreal feeling of accomplishment, said Devon Sabo, a zookeeper for the zoo’s North America region, as she used a computer screen to watch Aurora and her cub peacefully snooze last week.Īnd the team who cares for them doesn’t take a single birth for granted, said Nikki Smith, the assistant curator of the North America region. Its father is 20-year-old Lee, who moved to Columbus last year from the Denver Zoo. And if all goes well, the pair will emerge this spring for the first time in their public exhibit. In the coming weeks, it should crawl and explore the den with its mother, 13-year-old Aurora. This year’s cub is already opening its eyes and developing black skin on its nose and paw pads. Keepers record observations and key milestones, watching as the fragile newborn, only the size of a stick of butter, begins growing, squeaking, nursing and rolling in straw piles. This offers bears privacy in behind-the-scenes dens, but it also allows for intervention if something goes wrong. After each birth, Columbus zookeepers go into monitoring mode, watching the cub and its mother at all hours using remote cameras accessible by computers and cellphones. ![]()
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