{"id":590989,"date":"2026-04-08T20:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590989\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:48:08","slug":"calgary-zoo-introduces-new-polar-bear-yelle-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590989\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Zoo introduces new polar bear, Yelle, to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/YEZ4XYMDINCADBIQP65A47Z5RE.jpg?auth=9bcd32f42deda0fb9b8bfb9201917fbcfbafd1d5ecd7ed5a7bf80f3e71a0ab84&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">The Calgary Zoo&#8217;s new polar bear Yelle makes his first appearance on Wednesday after finishing quarantine.Bill Graveland\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The Calgary Zoo\u2019s new polar bear made his debut Wednesday, but it will be a while before he gets up close and personal with the current polar bear in residence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Yelle, a 500-kilogram, 20-year-old bear from Quebec, is out of quarantine and has made his way to the habitat at The Wilder Institute\/Calgary Zoo, wolfing down caches of food laid out for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">He is to be gradually introduced to 420-kilogram Siku.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cThey have had visual barriers in front of them just so they can get used to the space. They\u2019re very much aware of each other. They can smell each other, and they can hear each other and sometimes they go \u2026 talk,\u201d said Paul Woerner, the zoo\u2019s animal care manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cJust yesterday, they saw each other for the very first time, so we\u2019re doing slow introduction to the point where they can be out on habitat together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Calgary Zoo&#8217;s new polar bear made his debut Wednesday but it will be a while before he gets up close and personal with the current polar bear in residence. Yelle, a 500 kilogram, 20-year-old bear that arrived from Quebec has finished quarantine and made his way into the zoo&#8217;s habitat, wolfing down caches of food that staff had laid out for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-gmr-5\">The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Yelle\u2019s arrival comes almost two years after the zoo\u2019s polar bear Baffin died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The zoo determined Baffin died by drowning following a crushing injury to his trachea by Siku during a bout of rough play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Woerner said the zoo hasn\u2019t had to make any structural or procedural changes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cThere\u2019s no human error. There\u2019s nothing we could have done differently and so we haven\u2019t changed anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The bears are big for the Calgary Zoo. It has served as an Arctic Ambassador Centre with Polar Bears International since 2023, supporting efforts to raise awareness about the challenges the animals face in a rapidly changing Arctic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/alberta\/article-calgary-zoo-polar-bear\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Calgary Zoo welcomes new polar bear<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Yelle was born in the Netherlands. Polar bears in captivity generally live to be 25 to 30 years old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Woerner said the two bears seem to be, well, polar opposites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">He said Siku is very fond of his enclosure with its deep plunge pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cHe likes to use that sort of as his big house,\u201d Woerner said. \u201cHe comes out for a few hours then he goes back in and sits in his castle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Yelle, on the other hand, spends most of his time outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cMy first impression is he seems like a great old guy,\u201d Woerner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cHe\u2019s the extrovert for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Calgary Zoo&#8217;s new polar bear Yelle makes his first appearance on Wednesday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,2798,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-590989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-calgary","16":"tag-canada","17":"tag-canada-news","18":"tag-canada-sports","19":"tag-canada-sports-news","20":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","21":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","22":"tag-canadian-news","23":"tag-economy","24":"tag-education","25":"tag-environment","26":"tag-federal-government","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590989","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=590989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}