Polar Bear Cub Update – Week 12

Today we're at day 82 with our polar bear cub here at the Columbus Zoo and she's doing extremely well. As of this morning she was about 15 pounds and in length it varies every week because she grows about a half inch to a full inch every week but right now we're at about 21 to 21 and a half inches long. So she's she's grown quite a bit since we first brought her into hand rearing. She's doing great when it comes to developing. You'll notice that on videos or in photos in the beginning she was kind of on you know on the floor or she'd kind of slide around. Very typical for a cub that would be in the den with mom. They're not real mobile at that age but then as months go by they start to gain strength and the idea is that after about three months or so when they would emerge from the den is really when they have those motor skills and they're able to walk and run because once they're out of that den they need to be able to run with mom to wherever they're going. Again because she's getting older we have to make changes to her diet. So we were at about six bottles per day but now we're at five bottles and then to compensate for that bottle we're incorporating a lot more solids into her diet and she likes it pretty well and we do mix it with formula just so it has a bit of taste to it and but again she's really taking to it pretty nicely. Some other changes for her again since she's getting bigger and you'll see you see how thick she is and her coat is real thick. We have to keep the room kind of at a cooler level so right now we're at about 62 degrees today. Started off when we first had her in this room at 88 degrees so you can see how we had to adjust but again we just kind of every day we assess what's going on with her that day and we make adjustments as need be. You know she is she is still you know not even three months old so she still has that you know infant quality to her so you might notice her suckling on her hands right before she needs to go to sleep. It's just a comfort type behavior for her. Her vocalizations she kind of has the full range of them from you know that suckling with that trill again that's a content vocalization all the way up to ones that are higher pitched and that really represents when she's wanting to play or wanting her bottle things of that nature. So we're very pleased with the Polo Grow Pub and how she's developing and we look forward to watching her grow.