An attempt to create life went terribly wrong at the one and only Detroit Zoo when a male polar bear instead killed his partner on Monday while attempting to breed with her. According to Detroit Zoological Society Chief Life Sciences is Officer Scott Carter, “Anana and Nuka, 16, had lived together without incident since 2020”.
He also said, “This was completely unexpected, and the Detroit Zoo staff is devastated by the loss of Anana in this sudden and tragic event”. This was the first time in decades that one animal had killed another, he said, noting that it had last happened in 1988, also with polar bears.
Officer Scott Carter stated, “Nuka has lived at the Detroit Zoo since 2011 and has lived with, and bred with, several other female bears without showing harmful behavior. Anana came to the Detroit Zoo in January 2020, and was introduced to Nuka at the end of March. The Detroit Zoo’s other adult female polar bear, Suka, is in a private maternity den with one of her cubs”.
According to a report, Nuka had fathered Suka’s twins, which were born in the month of November, the first polar bears to be born and successfully raised at the Detroit Zoo since 2004. The loss also resonated in Ohio, where Anana, who was 20, had lived at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for four years before joining the Detroit Zoo in January 2020.
She had been sent to Detroit specifically to mate with Nuka after three cubless breeding seasons with Little One, Cincinnati’s then 30-year-old polar bear.
Anana was introduced to Nuka at the end of March, the Detroit Zoological Society said. Separated for several months as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) Polar Bear Species Survival Plan, the two were reintroduced last week as part of a program to ensure sustainable populations of captive animals, the Detroit Zoological Society said.
Sources: CNN, Facebook Detroit Zoo.
