Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition to keep the Denver Zoo鈥檚 polar bears together.
The petition on the site Care2 calls for both bears to be sent to a sanctuary following the zoo's recent announcement that the bears would be separated. Cranbeary is going to the Alaska Zoo at the end of October and Lee will go to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio in November.
鈥淔or six years, Cranbeary and Lee have lived together at the Denver Zoo, and by the looks of it, the two have gotten quite close,鈥� the petition stated. 鈥淯nfortunately, the two are about to (be) ripped apart.鈥�
But Denver Zoo director of communications Jake Kubie said people have the wrong idea about this couple. Starting with the idea that they are a couple.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not bonded,鈥� Kubie said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not in love. They don鈥檛 mate for life. And they actually don鈥檛 like each other about 11 months of the year.鈥�
Polar bears are very solitary creatures, he said. Cranbeary and Lee are only together for about four to six weeks each year in the spring during mating season.
鈥淥ther than that, they are kept in separate habitats because they actually get very agitated with each other and will tend to fight otherwise,鈥� Kubie said. 鈥淧eople are always applying human traits (to animals) and polar bears, in particular, are probably the biggest victim of that. I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 pop culture or the Coke commercials or what, but there鈥檚 this idea that polar bears have these family units that are deeply bonded, and that couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth.鈥�
The petition further maintains that putting the bears in any zoo is harmful as it suppresses their natural instincts.
But the decision to move the bears is being done to protect them, Kubie said. The bears have been together for six years without producing any offspring. There are only 44 polar bears in zoos in the United States.
鈥淭hese decisions are obviously very difficult,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e know that there is a major connection to polar bears for our guests and the community. They鈥檝e been here a long time. But what we want people to know is that we鈥檙e doing this -- both out of love for Cranbeary and Lee, and polar bears as a whole.鈥�
The zoo is doing special 鈥淜eeper Talks鈥� each weekend at the Northern Shores exhibit space so people can learn more about the polar bears as well as have a chance to say goodbye. This will be the first time in more than 80 years that the Denver Zoo will not have polar bears.
