Did you already have plans this week? Last-minute grocery shopping, a turkey to defrost or an evening of small talk with your extended family to prepare for?
Cancel them. Forget the bird, and look for dinner reservations. You’re going to the zoo.
This week is your last chance to visit Nora — the Oregon Zoo’s once-lonely, now beloved polar bear — before she leaves the Rose City for good, the zoo announced Monday. Fans can catch Nora at Polar Passage through Sunday to say their goodbyes and remember the good times.
Come December, Nora will start a new chapter at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Wisconsin, where zookeepers hope she’ll soon tackle another milestone.
“We know this is an important step for her as well as for the overall polar bear population,” said Rachel Ritchason, the Oregon Zoo’s deputy director of animal care. “It would be amazing to see her raise some cubs and help ensure a long-term future for this very vulnerable species.”
But while it may seem like lonely times at Polar Passage (Amelia Gray, Nora’s half sister, left Portland for Brookfield Zoo Chicago in September), a new friend is on the way.
Kallik — a young male bear from the Saint Louis Zoo — will make the move from Missouri to Oregon soon after Nora’s departure, according to the release.
Polar bear Nora has lived at the Oregon Zoo for four years, seen here on Wed., March 31, 2021.The Oregonian
It’s fair to say the Rose City will miss Nora, who after four years at the Oregon Zoo felt like a true Portlander. She was born in 2015 and zoo-hopped between Utah and Ohio before finally settling in Oregon in 2021, where she had previously been the subject of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s five-part series “The Loneliest Polar Bear.”
Truthfully, you might not actually have to cancel your Thanksgiving plans in order to squeeze in a quick goodbye. If anything, a trip to the zoo during a traditionally hectic week may in fact be something to be thankful for.
The Oregon Zoo will be closed Thursday for the holiday but is otherwise open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with last entry at 2:30 p.m.