Detroit Zoo Polar Bear Passes During Breeding Introduction

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: February 9, 2021 11:15 pm

Anana the polar bear in her enclosure at the Detroit Zoo

Photo Credit: Jennifer Harte/ Detroit Zoo

The Detroit Zoo’s female polar bear has passed away during a mating attempt with the zoo’s male on February 8th 2021. The 20 year old female Anana was being introduced to 16 year old male when the unfortunate incident occurred.

This is the first incident in which an animal at the Detroit Zoo has killed another since 1988, that incident also involved two polar bears.

In a release the zoo did not provide any further details around the specific incident.

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Anana and Nuka had lived together without incident since 2020. They were separated over the past few months and were being reintroduced as part of the breeding program for their species. This program aims to increase the numbers of polar bears housed in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) . Currently only 55 polar bears live in 25 AZA zoos.

The incident comes after the zoo last month announced the birth of two healthy polar bear cubs which were fathered by Nuka. The mother of those cubs, Suka is well and currently caring for one of her cubs in a den while keepers rear the other cub.

Nuka has called Detroit Zoo home since 2011 and in this time he has bred with multiple females. Anana came to the Detroit Zoo in January 2020, she was introduced to Nuka at the end of March 2020.