Suka, meet Nuka. Detroit Zoo plays matchmaker for polar bears
DETROIT — The Detroit Zoo welcomed a female polar bear this week as a new partner for a 13-year-old bear.
Suka, 5, arrived from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wis., the Detroit Zoo said Monday in a news release. Suka will pair with Nuka who is currently living in the zoo's Arctic Ring of Life.
Since 2011, Nuka had been paired with Talini, another 13-year-old polar bear, but the duo was unable to successfully reproduce.
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Given the situation, the Species Survival Plan run by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums came up with a plan to bring Suka and Nuka together and to relocate Talini to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, where she will be paired with an 8-year-old male polar bear named Siku.
“It’s hoped that the change of settings and partners may help these bears breed successfully,” said Dr. Randi Meyerson, deputy chief life sciences officer for the Detroit Zoological Society in a statement.
According to the zoo, Suka is under quarantine, but the polar bears soon will be paired, as breeding season is underway.
As the zoo explains it, species survival plans are "cooperative management programs" working to promote "genetically healthy, diverse and self-sustaining populations of threatened and endangered species."
In 2008, polar bears were placed on the Endangered Species list — a result of hardships brought on because of climate change.
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