{"id":56802,"date":"2023-01-12T20:25:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T01:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=56802"},"modified":"2023-01-12T20:25:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T01:25:29","slug":"the-oldest-polar-bear-in-captivity-in-the-us-dies-at-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/01\/the-oldest-polar-bear-in-captivity-in-the-us-dies-at-33\/","title":{"rendered":"The oldest polar bear in captivity in the US dies at 33"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 33-year-old polar bear who lived at the Kansas City Zoo in Missouri for around 10 years<\/a> has died, according to a statement from zoo officials released on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Berlin was the oldest polar bear in captivity in the United States. Zoo officials said it was “a testament to the extraordinary care she received from her animal care and veterinary health teams.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin was euthanized on Wednesday morning, the zoo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cUnfortunately, Berlin\u2019s health had significantly declined … it was determined there were no other additional medical options to improve her condition,\u201d the KC Zoo said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was euthanized surrounded by her caregivers,\u201d the zoo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin was being treated for hypertension and kidney failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBerlin will be dearly missed by her Zoo family, including staff, volunteers, and guests,\u201d the zoo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kansas City Zoo will make its annual contribution from the Zoo\u2019s Conservation Fund to Polar Bears International in memory of Berlin this year to aid in conserving this amazing, vulnerable species and their habitat in the wild,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born on Dec. 11, 1989 at the Cincinnati Zoo, she came into the world amid the aftermath of the World War II-era Berlin Wall’s fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berlin was taken to Kansas City after flooding at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota, forced her keepers to search for another home for the bear in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polar bears are known to live around 15 to 18 years in the wild and more than 23 years on average in captivity, making Berlin’s age at death somewhat rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBerlin was a beloved ambassador for her species and helped contribute to research that has benefited the wild polar bear population,\u201d the zoo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHer animal care specialists commended her big personality and described her as \u2018smart and sassy\u2019 and say she gave all of her caregivers \u2018a run for their money!\u2019\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 31-year-old polar bear named Bam Bam died from liver cancer<\/a> at the zoo in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city’s zoo has one other polar bear, a 6-year-old male named Nuniq, who arrived in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2021, Smithsonian Magazine reported <\/a>that North America’s oldest polar bear living in captivity at that time, Snow Lilly, died at age 36 at the Milwaukee County Zoo where she had lived for nearly 16 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 33-year-old polar bear who lived at the Kansas City Zoo in Missouri for around 10 years has died, according to a statement from zoo officials released on Thursday. Berlin was the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2066],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56804,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56802\/revisions\/56804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}