Louisville Zoo will soon be home to Qannik the 5 month old orphaned polar bear cub that received national attention when she was found on Alaska’s North Slope in April by employees of ConocoPhillips. Qannik means “snowflake” in the Inupiat language and it is also the name of the oil field where she was found.
The cub’s journey from the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage to Louisville is the product of a two-month collaboration among the Alaska Zoo and Louisville Zoo, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Polar Bears International and UPS.
Orphaned polar bear cub recovers at Alaska Zoo from Marc Lester on Vimeo.
Quannik was first spotted on Alaska’s North Slope in February with her mother and sibling. Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey placed a radio monitoring collar on the mother and were tracking her and the two cubs. Unfortunately the collar came loose and at some point and researchers were unable to locate the mother and her babies then in late April, Qannik was spotted again all alone and severely underweight. An unsuccessful aerial search was conducted to locate the mother.
Now that Qannik was able to put on some weight and has more balance she will be traveling with a special team of curators and caretakers representatives from both the Achorage Zoo that have helped nurse her to more stable health and her new team from the Louisville Zoo. The the little girl will be taking the special flight to her new home via a UPS Boeing 747-400. Quanniks new home at Glacier Run in the Louisville Zoo is home to Arki, a 26 year-old polar bear and a family of three grizzly bears. Her new caretakers will keep out of the public eye for a while as she adjusts to her new home and the other bears learn to accept the new baby.
Quannik playing in a tub of ice
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Thanks for sharing this lovely story. With all of the oil slicks, flooding, tornado news – it’s nice to see a happy ending once in a while!