Zoo Part 2: Polar Bear

What really drew us to the zoo was the new polar bear. If you go, look for the bear at McDonnell Polar Bear Point. Not McDonnell-Douglas Polar Bear Point. Not even Boeing Polar Bear point. I can only guess that Sanford McDonnell funded the project before he died in 2012.

You know how at the zoo some bears are sleepy, some bears are bored, some bears pace compulsively? (I’m looking at you, Spectacled Bear.) Not this bear. The new polar bear, Kali, is the most elated bear I have ever seen.

Perhaps we just saw him on a good day. It was the last day of winter, and it was chilly. I don’t know how perky he’ll be when it’s 101 and sticky. He has an open-air enclosure, but there are a number of swimming areas that I assume are full of chilly water.

When we came up to the first viewing area he was above ground, teasing the assembled crowd of fifteen. He would climb up to the highest rock, right next to the water. Then he’d crouch as if he were about to dive, crouch more, tense, quiver, then say, “Screw this” and amble off the platform. He did this six times before finally belly-flopping into the water, at which point the crowd screamed. I almost high-fived a stranger. Then. everyone ran off to the underwater viewing area.

We didn’t, and we got to see him climb out a minute later and go find some joint of flesh that still had some meat on it. He went back to the high rock, tossed the joint in the water and dove in to “catch” it. After he got it, he surfaced, and tossed it backwards over his head back in the water and back-flipped to go after it.

Well, then we had to watch this production from the underwater viewing area. He was all paws. Giant paws slapping on the glass to get traction. Enormous paws pulling through a backstroke. The paw size might have been exaggerated by the way the water magnified everything. When he was half out of the water you’d see a tiny bear head offset by two feet from a huge bear body.

He suddenly left, and we weren’t quick enough to see him go to the next area, the barren tundra (which is Mississippi river clay topped off with piles of ice cubes). When we arrived Gary remarked on how fast Kali got there, and a little boy turned and said “He ran!” From the look on the boy’s face I could just picture it.

There was no question of why he ran, he was face-first in a pile of blubber or salmon or something else we couldn’t see.

I cannot wait until we get him a girlfriend.