SLEEPY BEARS
Zoo grizzlies hibernating
It’s time for a long, well-deserved nap for two of the most popular animals at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo.
Grizzly bears Koda and Mistaya are now officially off display and in full hibernation mode. This will be the second time the bears have taken this long sleep, the result of a change made by zoo manager Tim Sinclair-Smith when he joined the Forestry Farm team in 2016.
Although the zoo welcomes about 30,000 visitors every winter, Sinclair-Smith said it’s simply not ethical or healthy to keep bears on display during a time when they would normally hibernate.
The long nap helps the bears regulate their natural weight gain and weight loss cycles, but because Koda and Mistaya had not been hibernating before Sinclair-Smith arrived, they still come out of the den in spring heavier than is considered normal.
Properly preparing the bears for hibernation is one of the steps to help get them to the right weight, which includes strict adherence to the specialized diet prepared by a wildlife nutritionist, he said.
“It’s really important that we match exactly what would happen in their wild diets ... so in the wild, what would normally happen is that the protein dries up as things go into hibernation and animals migrate, so the only thing available is that herbivorous diet.”
This specialized diet includes wild hand-picked berries — because they contain a lower sugar content than those available at the grocery store — that were purchased specifically for the bears during the summer.
To make sure the nap goes smoothly, a live-feed camera has been set up inside the den.
“It’s quite funny to watch them,” Sinclair-Smith said. “Koda is like that annoying little brother who keeps putting his feet in your face and ... just wants to be left alone.”
For now, Sinclair-Smith is one of the few people with access to the live feed, but he said the zoo hopes to have the feed broadcasting on its website for anyone to watch very soon. For next winter, plans are in the works to install a large screen at the zoo so visitors can still check out the bears even though they are not in their enclosure, he said.
“We are hoping they will become the city’s mascots when it comes to winter, where residents will say, ‘Winter’s here because Koda and Mistaya have gone into hibernation,’ and ‘Winter’s over because Koda and Mistaya are coming out of their dens.’ ”