{"id":544780,"date":"2026-03-18T15:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544780\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:43:08","slug":"wilder-institute-calgary-zoo-welcomes-new-polar-bear-yelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544780\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo welcomes new polar bear, Yell\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo has welcomed a new polar bear to it\u2019s family from Quebec. <\/p>\n

Twenty-year-old Yell\u00e9 arrived Tuesday from Zoo Sauvage de Saint-F\u00e9licien, the zoo says, and is currently settling in during a required quarantine period. <\/p>\n

He was born in 2005 at the Ouwehands\u00a0Zoo in the Netherlands\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcoming any new arrival is always an exciting time, but\u00a0Yell\u00e9\u2019s\u00a0arrival is especially meaningful for our team,\u201d said Paul Woerner, animal care manager (Wild Canada). \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking for the right companion for\u00a0Siku, and\u00a0having\u00a0Yell\u00e9\u00a0join\u00a0our zoo family\u00a0is a moment we\u2019ve all been eagerly anticipating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once his quarantine period is finished, Yell\u00e9 will be introduced to 10-year-old Siku. <\/p>\n

Siku has been without a partner since seven-year-old Baffin died<\/a> by drowning after a play accident in July 2024. <\/p>\n

The zoo says introduced will be carefully guided by animal care experts based on the bears\u2019 behaviour and comfort. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur team\u00a0has extensive\u00a0experience\u00a0in caring for\u00a0polar\u00a0bears\u00a0and managing\u00a0introductions,\u201d said Woerner.\u00a0The process\u00a0will be\u00a0gradual \u2013starting with\u00a0scent\u00a0 exchanges,\u00a0then allowing the bears to see and interact with each other\u00a0through a protective\u00a0barrier, and\u00a0eventually sharing\u00a0space. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery step\u00a0will be\u00a0guided by\u00a0careful observation and our knowledge of polar bear behavior to ensure\u00a0the safety,\u00a0comfort\u00a0and\u00a0wellbeing\u00a0of both bears.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visitors to the zoo will be able to see Yell\u00e9 in the Taylor Family Foundation Polar Bear Sanctuary starting in April. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo has welcomed a new polar bear to it\u2019s family from Quebec. Twenty-year-old Yell\u00e9 arrived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-544780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}