Polar bear Baffin dies in Calgary Zoo pool

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The Calgary Zoo said Baffin, one of its two male polar bears, died Friday morning after failing to surface from a pool in the bear enclosure.

Jamie Dorgan, the zoo’s interim executive director and chief operating officer, said Baffin and Siku were training in the pool around 11:30 a.m., as is their normal behavior, when staff noticed Baffin had not surfaced.

The tragedy unfolded as a crowd of visitors watched the antics of the two main animals, who were playing together in the enclosure’s lower pool just before Baffin disappeared from view, and a staff member noticed Baffin had gone missing.

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Siku was moved to another area of ​​the bear enclosure within Canada’s Wilderness Zone and the zoo closed that area shortly after.

“We didn’t see Baffin for a few minutes… shortly after that we were able to get him out of the pool,” Dorgan said, adding that he’s not sure how long the bear was in medical distress underwater.

“Baffin died in the pool… Obviously, it is a huge shock for our staff and volunteers today to hear about this incredibly surprising situation.”

Dorgan said it is not yet known what may have gone wrong and that an investigation is underway.

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The death comes during the same week that the zoo has been providing information to the media about how the animals have been coping with the current heatwave.

“We check on our animals every day of the year to make sure their physical, emotional and nutritional needs are met,” said Alison Archambault, the zoo’s director of brand and engagement, during one such session Thursday as the bears frolicked in their enclosure.

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He said both animals enjoyed several sources of water and cooling and were thriving in the heat.

Dorgan said the zoo is doing everything it can to support staff and volunteers shocked by Baffin’s death.

“Our animal care specialists have some pretty important relationships with these animals; they are like family to them – most of these people spend more time with their animals than they do with their own families,” Dorgan said.

“These polar bears have been a fantastic addition and we were so excited to give them a great home. Considering everything seemed normal before, it is very, very shocking, as any sudden death in a family.”

Seven-year-old Baffin and eight-year-old Siku arrived from Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg last fall (the first polar bears at the Calgary Zoo since 1999) before taking up residence in the zoo’s renovated $40 million Wild Canada Zone, which opened in December.

Their special habitat, the $11.5 million Taylor Family Foundation Polar Bear Sanctuary, is a two-acre enclosure within Canada’s Wilderness.

It took the zoo 26 months to prepare the enclosure, the most ambitious project in its history, officials say.

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The bears were orphaned as cubs and spotted wandering by conservation officers near Churchill, Manitoba. They were deemed too young to survive in the wild on their own, so they were transported to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre at the Winnipeg Zoo.

After six years living alongside seven other polar bears, it was decided that the pair would benefit from a smaller group and they were relocated to Calgary.

They arrived in Calgary last October and were introduced to the public in December.

The zoo will review its handling of polar bears as it does after every such incident, Dorgan said.

“We always follow up to see if there is anything to learn that is different,” he said.

Dorgan said it is still too early to say when the polar bear enclosure will reopen to the public.

Animal rights activists attack zoo

Although the cause of Baffin’s death has yet to be determined, animal rights activists were quick to criticize the zoo for housing polar bears in the first place.

Michael Alvarez-Toye, administrator and spokesman for Calgary Animal Rights Effort, said he was not surprised that one of the zoo’s bears died.

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He said the zoo never backed up the decision to bring polar bears back to Calgary with solid scientific data. He cited a study from the University of Oslo in Norway indicating polar bears are the ungulates that struggle the most in the transition to a life in captivity.

“Science clearly shows that polar bears should not and should never be imprisoned as they are,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what entertainment you provide for them. They are not animals that live to have fun. They live and thrive in a habitat that provides them with everything: food, shelter, health, energy, all those things. It doesn’t matter if you paint rocks to look like ice. It’s not enough.”

Camille Labchuk, executive director of Toronto-based Animal Justice, said she was “disturbed” to hear of Baffin’s death.

“There have been many deaths at the Calgary Zoo over the years and I was very saddened to see another death,” she said.

“Obviously there isn’t a lot of information yet to suggest anything about what happened, but I was concerned about the reports of fighting. Obviously, keeping polar bears, which are creatures of the Arctic, in extreme heat also raises concerns.”

— With files from Monica Zurowski and Scott Strasser

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X: @BillKaufmannjrn

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