Winnipeg zoo's polar bear count rises to 9 with new cub

Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo has welcomed another orphaned polar bear cub the second one in 2 weeks.

The one-year-old male bear arrived at the zoo's Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre on Dec. 9. A one-year-old female cub was taken in at the centre on Nov. 22.

• Assiniboine Park zoo gets new polar bear cub

Both cubs are under astandard 30-day quarantine period and will eventually, once they've grown and beefed up a bit,be moved to thezoo's 10-acre Journey to Churchill exhibit.

The exhibit is already home to seven other polar bears Storm, Aurora, Kaska, Blizzard, Star, York and Eli as well as other Arctic species in separate enclosures.

The latest cub was brought to the Leatherdale centre afterconservation officers observed it for quite some time in the Churchill area. Several failed attempts were made to connect him with other female bears in the area and it became clear that intervention was needed, stated a news release from the Assiniboine Park Conservancy .

"Cubs of this age need to stay with their mothers for at least one winter, or through freeze up of the western Hudson Bay, to learn how to hunt and for protection from other bears. Wildlife experts agree cubs this young are not able to survive on their own."

The cub, which weighs just 39 kilograms(85 pounds), is the lightest orphan the centre has received to date. A normal weight is about 45 kilograms.

"I think it's probably indicative of the really poor year," saidStephen Peterson, the head of conservation and research at Assiniboine Park Conservancy.

"This year we had warm weather and south winds and that ice just has really been delayed in forming. It's just starting to form now and it's one of the latest years we've seen in a long time."

Peterson said they are watching to see if there are other skinny cubs not connecting with their moms, but, so far, it appears to be an isolated incident.

"This time of year those bears will be out onice they will be light but we don't really think of them as being really at risk," he said. "It's just part of the cycle they are used to until we get years where that delay makes them on shore longer and they aren't able to get food."

After the bear's quarantine, Peterson said he will become an ambassador to the north and join the rest of its furry comrades. At that time, they will also start looking at a naming process.