Thanks to a donation from an Ottawa fire hall, the local animals had fun with a new ‘enrichment’ toy<\/p>\n
COCHRANE \u2014 It took weeks to build a new raft for Cochrane polar bears.<\/p>\n
The bears took about 30 minutes to take it apart.<\/p>\n
Using about two pallets of donated fire hose from Ottawa Fire Station 47, the raft is a new form of enrichment for the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat\u2019s Ganuk and Henry.<\/p>\n
The project is one of several happening behind the scenes at the habitat, which is also working with a Canadian artist to create new artwork featuring its bears and hosting university\u00a0students for research.<\/p>\n
Inspired by a United Kingdom zoo that built a similar structure, the Cochrane team had been working to find the materials for the project for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’d been reaching out to a few fire halls in the north, and they unfortunately didn’t have any leftover fire hoses, so we just reached out to firehouses in the Ottawa area,\u201d said Amy Baxendell-Young, the habitat\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
Ottawa Fire Station 47 offered the habitat about two pallets of hose.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Fire hose is useful as an enrichment material because it\u2019s strong and durable, with a fabric exterior and plastic interior.<\/p>\n
A hole was deliberately left in the raft so the bears could poke their heads through it, similar to how they might interact with openings in ice.<\/p>\n
Ganuk tried climbing onto the raft, which was exactly the kind of behaviour the team had hoped to encourage, Baxendell-Young said.<\/p>\n
Introducing new objects like the raft is an important part of caring for the bears and provides both mental and physical stimulation, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s essential for us to keep introducing new things to the bears’ environment,\u201d Baxendell-Young said. \u201cThey’re very intelligent. They’re very curious.\u201d<\/p>\n
The habitat has also recently started a new collaboration with a Canadian artist.<\/p>\n
Nova Scotia-based artist Guy Hobbs approached the habitat about creating artwork featuring its bears.<\/p>\n
The team was impressed with his work and sent him several photos to choose from.<\/p>\n
He selected a photo of Ganuk swimming as the inspiration for Into the Blue.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Baxendell-Young said the habitat decided to work with Hobbs because it loved his work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just really important to support, even if they’re not local, to support small Canadian artists and creators,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The habitat is working out the final details, but plans to sell high-quality prints of the artwork in its gift shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cOften, you know, our phones don’t always take the best photos,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we can capture artwork, especially such incredibly well-done artwork, it’s just something that people can take with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The habitat is also currently hosting two undergraduate students from McGill University who are researching polar bear hair.<\/p>\n
The students have set up an experiment outside the bear holding building, looking at DNA in polar bear hair follicles and how it is affected by exposure to the elements.<\/p>\n
Their project builds on previous research conducted in northern Quebec, where researchers encountered questions about how quickly DNA in hair samples can degrade while sitting on hair traps.<\/p>\n
The students are recreating the experiment in a more controlled environment at the habitat to better understand how long hair can remain exposed before the DNA is significantly affected.<\/p>\n
Visitors can see the research setup and speak with the students about their work.<\/p>\n
The students are spending about a week at the habitat and gaining hands-on experience with animal care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they’re not working on their projects, they’re helping the bear team. They\u2019re doing some food preparation, creating enrichments, shadowing vet visits, enrichment sessions, feedings, and things like that,\u201d Baxendell-Young said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, they’re learning about how the bears are cared for, as well as doing their own projects too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thanks to a donation from an Ottawa fire hall, the local animals had fun with a new ‘enrichment’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,162924,66,323],"class_list":["post-876501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cochrane-polar-bear-habitatamy-baxendell-young","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876501","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=876501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}