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4.10.2001
The cub runneth
over
A saucy
baby bear bowls them over in public debut at Roger Williams Park Zoo
BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The star of the day, 30 pounds of
fluff with a nifty nose and enormous paws, scampered over the rocks and chomped
on a pear.
Cameras clicked. People said gooey stuff, like, ' 'Ohhhh , it's sooooo
adorable!!!' '
Born four months ago at the Roger Williams Park Zoo and already a star of videos
taken by a remote video camera trained on the behind-the-scenes cubbing den, the
polar bear cub greeted the public yesterday with overt antics. It wriggled its
little polar bear butt, dunked its snout in the water and chased pigeons.
Shutters snapped when the cub rolled atop a bed of polar bear biscuits intended
for nutritional enhancement and eating pleasure. It lolled on its back, rolling
and rolling as though it had just discovered the Swedish Tempurpedic mattress
instead of a bed of crunchy edibles.
"It's healthy, vigorous, lively and funny," Superintendent of Parks Nancy L. Derrig
said moments before the cub made its debut. "A healthy bear indicates a healthy
zoo."
Derrig added, "This is a really special day for us."
This cub is the second surviving cub born in captivity at the Providence zoo.
Its predecessor, Triton, born in 1998, now lives at the Detroit Zoo.
The new cub has no name yet, but don't worry, there is already a naming contest,
even though it is not yet clear whether the cub is a male or female.
(Information and entry blanks are available at the zoo's Web site, www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.com,
and at some Fleet Bank branches and Cardi's Furniture stores.)
"We haven't been able to determine its sex yet," said curator Amos Morris. But
when the cub dives into the underwater viewing area and zoo staff can get a good
look at its private parts, then they'll know, he said.
Although -- and we say this ever so tentatively -- the speculation is that it's
a girl.
"My intuition? Because of her behavior, I would say it's a girl," said zoo director
Bruce C. Clark. "Springing around and rambunctious, but not overtly aggressive
. . ."
Ron Martini, the polar bears' lead keeper, also thinks it's a girl. "Let's just
say that if we were to dress it, she'd look pretty in pink." It's just a feeling
Martini has. That, and something about the round face, "much different than Triton's,"
he said.
The cub yesterday managed a trick no one else has: diverting attention from Mayor
Vincent A. Cianci Jr., who has been followed by a buzzing cloud of reporters ever
since his indictment last week on racketeering charges.
Cianci briefly heralded the zoo, which he noted has come a long way since his
first night as mayor 25 years ago "when I got a call that the animals were escaping."
Cianci and Derrig also heralded Martini, who has worked as a zookeeper here for
21 years. As the lead keeper for the polar bears, Martini has been primarily responsible
for raising Trixie, 14, and Norton, 12, the cub's parents, since their arrival
as young bears.
But the Boston news teams that had trailed the mayor to the zoo quickly swiveled
their focus to the four-month-old cub cavorting in its exhibit.
What mayor?
What indictment?
Yesterday, it was all about the bear.
Assisted by Trixie, its 600-pound mother, the cub attacked a block of ice sculpted
into the words "Oh Baby!" (sculpted by Art 'N Ice, of Warwick) and tugged out
a mackerel encased inside.
The cub clutched the fish in its jaws, then dropped it in the water. It slid on
its belly on the ice. Nipped at its mother. Stood on its hind legs and investigated
the sculpted "fishsicle."
"I think he's very cute and very active," said Dylan Marshall, 10, of New York,
who was visiting his grandparents in Rhode Island. Marshall indicated his grasp
of polar bear knowledge by relating the following truism: "A lot of people say
their fur is white, but it's not. It's clear."
Martini, who at times shouted encouragement to Trixie from the sidelines, spent
the morning relating facts on these threatened Arctic sea bears to reporters and
the public, and describing the cub's personality quirks.
"It whines. It's afraid of the water," Martini said. "We've had it outside for
about a week, to get it acclimated." Other keepers stood around and made noise,
Martini added, to gradually accustom the cub to the public.
Martini spoke of the situations that currently threaten polar bears in the wild,
such as hunting, and global pollution and global warming that are shrinking the
bears' habitat. The potential of oil drilling in Alaska may pose the most immediate
threat to their survival, he said.
Martini spoke of the high genetic ranking of this cub (one of three born in captivity
in North American zoos this year), because of its father, Norton.
Norton, Martini explained, "is a founder bear," born outside the North American
captive population. Through their offspring, founder bears bring genetic diversity
to the captive population.
This cub "will stay here for two years," Martini said, then will go to another
zoo.
VSee video clips of the polar bear cub and read previous Journal coverageabout
its birth at:
http://projo.com/news/polarbear/
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