{"id":544971,"date":"2026-03-18T17:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:43:10","slug":"new-polar-bear-arrives-at-wilder-institute-calgary-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544971\/","title":{"rendered":"New polar bear arrives at Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo is once again home to two polar bears, after 20-year-old Yell\u00e9 arrived Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The male bear was born at a zoo in the Netherlands, and came to Calgary from the Zoo Sauvage de Saint-F\u00e9licien in Quebec. <\/p>\n

He is being held in quarantine before he joins the exhibit’s other resident, 10-year-old male Siku. Experts will monitor how the bears respond to each other as they are introduced, the zoo said. <\/p>\n

“The process will be gradual \u2014 starting with scent exchanges, then allowing the bears to see and interact with each other through a protective barrier, and eventually sharing space,” Paul Woerner, Animal Care Manager for the zoo’s Wild Canada section, said in a news release Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The zoo said visitors will likely be able to see the new bear sometime in April. <\/p>\n

Siku has been the zoo’s lone polar bear since his habitat mate, Baffin, died in 2024 when the two bears were roughhousing in the water. <\/p>\n

A necropsy revealed seven-year-old Baffin died from a playful bite that crushed his trachea, and caused him to drown.<\/p>\n

Polar bears can live to up to 30 years, according to the zoo. <\/p>\n

\"ATeams will gradually introduce Yell\u00e9 to his new habitat mate, 10-year-old Siku. (Zoo Sauvage de Saint-F\u00e9licien)<\/p>\n

At the time, the zoo left the door open to bringing in a new polar bear, but said it would not happen immediately. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking for the right companion for Siku, and having Yell\u00e9 join our zoo family is a moment we\u2019ve all been eagerly anticipating,\u201d said Woerner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-544971","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\/544971","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=544971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}