A whopping 30,000 animal lovers packed the Saint Louis Zoo last weekend to catch a glimpse of Kali, the first polar bear to live in the zoo’s newest habitat, McDonnell Polar Bear Point. But as climbing temperatures had zoo visitors searching for shade, many of them wondered:
Can a polar bear from Alaska stay comfortable during St. Louis’ scorching summers?
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The answer is yes, according to Steve Bircher, curator of mammals and carnivores at the Saint Louis Zoo. Just like the zoo’s previous polar bears and other cold-weather animals, such as arctic foxes, Kali will have plenty of cooling features in his new home to prevent overheating.
See also: New York Is Totally Jealous Kali the Orphaned Polar Bear Is Moving to St. Louis
Polar Bear Point includes two pools, both temperature controlled to stay around 65 degrees during the summer and 40 degrees during the winter.
“That’s a very comfortable temperature for him,” Bircher says. “He loves his pools.”
Kali also has his own ice machine, which dispenses 850 pounds of ice—the 2-year-old bear’s current body weight—in 24 hours. Bircher says the ice piles up more than six feet.
“We’ve got this big mound of ice out there he can go play with any time he wants,” Bircher says. If temperatures climb too high for the pools and ice maker to be effective, zookeepers will bring Kali into an indoor, air-conditioned holding area.
Kali’s diet will also help him adapt to his new climate. Since winters here are warmer than in Kali’s native Alaska, he won’t need to eat calorie-rich seal blubber to build a thick layer of insulation.
“Animals like polar bears don’t put on as heavy a fat layer and they may not grow as thick a hair coat” in warmer places like St. Louis, Bircher says.
