19 April 2004 20:10
Qld: Polar bear has fatal kidney disease
GOLD COAST, April 19 AAP - A female polar bear set to play a key role in a breeding program for the species in
Australia is likely to be euthanased because of terminal kidney disease. Kanook is the original female star of Gold
Coast theme park Sea World's polar bear shores and shares the $6 million exhibit with a younger male called Ping
Ping from China. Sea World today revealed 19-year-old Kanook, who came to Australia from a zoo in Arizona in the United
States more than three years ago, had been diagnosed with kidney failure in April last year and was unlikely to survive.
Sea World marine sciences director Trevor Long said despite treatment with steroids her health had rapidly deteriorated
over the past month. "We can't reverse it. We are talking weeks or months," he said. "It is going to
get to a point to where she goes downhill fast." Mr Long said she would be euthanased if her quality of life was
reduced. "She is fine at the moment but over the past month it has become increasingly difficult to feed her,"
he said. "She is not as active as what she was." Kanook is one of four polar bears at the theme park and until
recently she and Ping Ping had shared appearance time with Russian bear cubs Lia and Lutik. Kanook and Ping Ping were
kept together in the hope they would breed, however Ping Ping may now instead be mated with Lia. "It's going
to be a situation where Kanook is not going to be there so we have started to introduce Ping Ping to Lia and we would
like to be able to mate those two," said Mr Long. A year after opening Polar Bear Shores, Sea World credited Ping
Ping and Kanook with increasing visitor numbers by 20 per cent. Ping Ping is on a breeding loan and is scheduled to be
returned to China at the end of the year. Sea World will seek to have Ping Ping's stay extended and has begun an
international search for another polar bear to replace Kanook. AAP dp/sc/sjb/bwl
[AAP News] |
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