Brookfield Zoo loans pair of polar bears to Memphis
Two young polar bears on loan from Brookfield Zoo as part of a breeding program arrived safely Wednesday at their new home in Memphis, Tenn.
Male Payton, 2, and female Haley, 3, were flown to the Memphis Zoo on Wednesday morning. Officials say they didn't know how long the two would stay in Tennessee.
They will live in a new $23 million exhibit, ``Northwest Passage,'' scheduled to launch March 3 for the Memphis Zoo's 100th anniversary celebration.
"They are the stars of the new exhibit,'' said Julie Dodson, spokeswoman for the Memphis Zoo. "Visitors will be able to see them both above and under water.''
Payton and Haley will be the first polar bears to live at the Memphis Zoo in five years.
Officials moved the previous bears out while they prepared the new exhibit, said Mary Burke, assistant curator of mammals for the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago.
Payton and Haley have been playmates since October 2005, and the zoos hope that they produce offspring after they reach sexual maturity at age 5 or 6, said Sondra Katzen, a Brookfield Zoo spokeswoman.
The breeding loan was arranged by a conservation program for endangered and threatened species. Polar bears are considered potentially threatened.
"Because of global warming, a lot of the natural habitat that they're in, the ice isn't staying frozen as long as it should,'' Katzen said. ``They aren't getting the food that they need.''
Haley and Payton will live with a third bear, a 4-year-old female named Cranbeary.
Brookfield Zoo officials plan to reunite Payton's mother and father, Arki and Aussie, in February in hope that they breed again, Burke said.
