Twin polar bear cubs at Detroit Zoo will be moved to Washington zoo

ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Twin polar bear cubs at the Detroit Zoo will shortly have a new residence in the point out of Washington.

The Detroit Zoo explained Wednesday that two polar bear cubs, Astra and Laerke, will shift to Level Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, this spring. The transfer is becoming done for every recommendations by Affiliation of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) polar bear population authorities.

The Detroit Zoo claimed these suggestions aid the sustainability of a balanced, genetically numerous and demographically diverse polar bear inhabitants, as evidenced by one particular of the program’s most important aims – introducing vulnerable species of animals in hopes of mating.

Sisters Astra and Laerke had been born on Nov. 17, 2020, to mother Suka and father Nuka. Just two times following her start, however, Laerke experienced a clinical emergency – separating her from her sister and leaving her weak and in need of frequent, intricate lifesaving treatment from the Detroit Zoo animal care employees.

The cubs were being aside for a lot more than two years right before reuniting in this spring at the Detroit Zoo’s Arctic Ring of Everyday living habitat – and considering that then, they have been inseparable, paying numerous times at the Zoo enjoying and roaming about the Arctic Ring of Life.

At a lot more than two a long time old, Astra and Laerke are at an age when they would be living on their very own in the wild, away from their mom – so this go is all-natural and necessary for their ongoing growth, the zoo said.

“We are saddened Laerke and Astra will be leaving us, but the Detroit Zoo is so happy to have performed a role that affected how these two cubs grew up,” mentioned Betsie Meister, associate curator of mammals for the DZS. “With that explained, we know they are likely to a good home at Stage Defiance Zoo, yet another fantastic, AZA-accredited facility, and we are self-assured they will prosper in their new ecosystem.”

“Astra and Laerke are substantial-energy, playful bears who each and every have an outstanding tale,” additional Malia Somerville, interim normal curator for Position Defiance Zoo. “Our animal care and veterinary groups have many years of working experience caring for polar bears, and we are hunting ahead to introducing the sisters to our community below in Tacoma – the place we will help them increase in their new home.”

Polar bears are outlined as threatened below the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and the Global Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Fee has specified the species as struggling with a large hazard of world wide extinction.