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12.14.2000
Pink or blue? Zoo has no clue
Roger Williams Zoo announces the birth of another polar bear.
By KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE - Possibly, it's
a boy. Or then again, it could be a girl.
Actually, it's a wee little
baby polar bear, and it's now official!
For the next few months,
the cub will remain in seclusion with its mother, Trixie, at the Roger Williams
Park Zoo.
"We're pleased to announce
that Trixie and Norton are parents again," said Mayor Vincent A. Cianci
Jr. yesterday at a news conference in his office. The cub's birth "brings
joyous news to our city during the holiday season," he added.
The mayor referred to the
zoo's two adult polar bears, who in 1997 produced the first surviving polar
bear cub in captivity in the zoo's 126-year history. That cub became known as
Triton.
The new cub, born 10 to
15 days ago, weighs "less than 5 pounds and is about 7 inches in length,"
zoo officials said.
How do they know?
On Tuesday, an infrared
camera trained on a corner of Trixie's behind-the-scenes cubbing den captured
footage of the wobbly cub exploring its new world of straw, cement, fur, and
vitamin-enriched mother's milk.
It was then, said Zoo Director
Bruce Clark, that the staff knew for sure what it already suspected: that Trixie
had given birth to a cub, and that the cub has thus far survived.
Played on a large-screen
television in the mayor's office, the video shows the 500-pound mother polar
bear lolling like a white behemoth next to her chipmunk-sized offspring, like
a mountain next to a bean.
Trixie licks her cub, paws
at straw on the den floor to keep her nest together, then rolls on her back,
scoops up the cub and places it to her breast to let it suckle. Meanwhile, Trixie
angles her toothy snout toward the camera.
Because the zoo staff will
not be able to go near the baby bear for weeks, if not months, the question
of "boy" or "girl" remains unknown. Only zoo staff members
whose scent Trixie recognizes will be allowed near the building that houses
the cubbing den.
And the public won't get
to see the cub until "sometime in the spring," according to Clark.
Clark explained that a cub's
first months are fraught with peril, from the possibility of its mother accidentally
crushing it or failing to nurse it properly, to medical complications. For those
reasons, zoos traditionally do not announce a cub's birth until at least 30
days, he said.
Nonetheless, Cianci hailed
the cub's birth as "another momentous milestone in the annals of our zoo,"
and underscored the "great significance for North America's polar bear
population as well."
Reminding the public to
be patient, Cianci said, "At this point, Trixie is showing all signs of
being a wonderful mother. We're hopeful and optimistic that she will continue
to nurture the cub."
Besides Clark, the zoo's
director, on hand in Cianci's office were Nancy Derrig, superintendent of parks;
zoo curator Amos Morris; Ronnie Martini, the zoo's lead keeper for its North
American mammals; Jack Mulvena, executive director of the Rhode Island Zoological
Society, and Lisa Bousquet, the zoo's public relations and marketing director.
Because the captive population
of polar bears is small, every birth is planned and genetically managed, according
to Clark and Morris.
Breeding recommendations
come from what is known as the " Bear Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) of the
American Zoo and Aquarium Association."
After Triton was moved last
year to a Detroit Zoo (where, the mayor mentioned, he is doing well and has
consumed enough mackerel to expand his girth to 400 pounds), the Bear Taxon
Advisory Group gave permission for Trixie and Norton to breed again.
The birth "is significant
because there were only six recommended breedings last year" in North America,
Clark said. "We don't know if the others were successful," he said.
The goal, he explained,
is to manage "a self-sustaining polar bear population in North America,
for educational purposes" at zoos.
Norton is also what is known
as a "founder bear," or a bear born outside the North American captive
population. That means he brings genetic diversity to the captive population,
Clark said.
In the wild, polar bears
are considered "vulnerable," which means that they are likely to become
endangered.
DIGITAL EXTRA:
Watch a video of the polar
bear cub with its mother, Trixie, at Roger Williams Park Zoo.
http://projo.com/cgi-bin/include.pl/extra/polar.htm
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