Published: September 10, 2013
...Aquila (click here) was the last survivor of triplet polar bears – two males and a female – that were born at the Louisville Zoo in November 1992. The three siblings became the first bears in the N.C. Zoo’s polar bear exhibit when it opened in August 1994.
Aquila and the zoo’s other male polar bear, Wihelm, were sent to other zoos in summer 2011 as the zoo began an $8.5 million renovation and expansion of its polar bear exhibit. Aquila returned from the Detroit Zoo in April when renovations to part of the exhibit were completed, but Wilhelm remains at the Milwaukee Zoo while work on the exhibit continues....
Arctic exhibit on thin ice at zoo (click here)
by Katherine Ferguson
The Daily Tar Heel
Updated: 8 hours ago
With a babbling creek, an alpine meadow and arctic flora, the North Carolina Zoological Park’s refurbished polar bear exhibit is only missing one thing: polar bears.
The zoo, located in Asheboro, is planning to unveil the $8.5 million project in spring 2014 — but the lack of polar bears currently at the zoo and a decreasing wild population could pose obstacles for zoo curators.
Ken Reininger, general curator of animal collections at the zoo, said the exhibit may be home to another species for the near future.
“There’s just not a lot of (polar bears) there, either in the wild or in captivity,” Reininger said.
After the unexpected death of Aquila, one of the zoo’s polar bears, earlier this month, the zoo has only one left. But that bear, 29-year-old Wilhelm, is staying at a zoo in Milwaukee and may be too elderly to return to the exhibit....
