Fruit and blood ice cream on the menu as Tallinn Zoo polar bears celebrate special day
Friday is International Polar Bear Day. Nature education specialist Heiko Kruus told ERR the polar bears at Tallinn Zoo spend most of their day lazing around but on special days like this they get their favorite treat: ice cream with fruit and blood.
This Friday, February 27 is International Polar Bear Day.
Tallinn Zoo will celebrate the occasion this Saturday (February 28).
"The rhythm of life for polar bears at the zoo is the same as in nature, with two-thirds of their time spent lazing around, or doing nothing," explained Heiko Kruus, the zoo's nature education specialist.
"Most of the remaining third of their time is spent walking around or swimming, and very little is spent on other activities," he added.
According to Kruus, visitors to Tallinn Zoo often ask why the animals are not doing anything.
"People don't think about the fact that in nature, animals just exist most of the time; they don't need to do anything," he said.
Tallinn Zoo currently has two sets of twin polar bear cubs – Skadi and Kaja, and Imaq and Inuk. Four-year-olds Skadi and Kaja were born at Rostock Zoo in Germany, while the six-year-old twins Imaq and Inuk were born in Denmark.
"Polar bears like to swim and play, and they are pretty playful," Kruus said,
"It is difficult to say exactly how many polar bears live in the wild, because the Arctic ice area is divided into 20 distinct populations. The bears also live in the middle of ice fields, which makes it very difficult to obtain accurate figures. There are now 200 polar bears living in zoos – four of which are in our zoo."
Global warming is having a major impact on polar bears, especially in the summer.
"The polar bear's main food source is seals, and when there is water without ice, seals are more agile than the bears, so they can escape. Polar bears are used to ambushing their prey near ice holes, where seals have to come up to breathe," Kruus explained.
If a proper ice sheet does not form on the water, polar bears are forced to swim a lot in order to catch their prey, as the distance between land and ice gets further and further.
"There is a record for how far a polar bear has swum, and it is an impressive distance. The bear swam for nine and a half days and almost 700 kilometers just to get back onto the ice to hunt and feed," Kruus told ERR.
According to Kruus, the polar bears at Tallinn Zoo mostly eat beef. "On special days, however, the polar bears get a special treat – and their favorite is ice cream with fruit and blood."
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