Photo by Kelly Ann Brown/Buffalo Zoo
Kali, the Saint Louis Zoo's new polar bear.
St. Louis has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Kali, the two-year-old orphaned polar bear, ever since he was rescued from Alaska. The Saint Louis Zoo had some stiff competition from New York zoos that wanted to keep him there, but U.S. Fish & Wildlife decided last month that Kali (pronounced CUL-ley) would find his forever home in the Lou.
See also: New York Is Totally Jealous Kali the Orphaned Polar Bear Is Moving to St. Louis
But just how do you transport an 850-pound polar bear halfway across the country? Via FedEx, apparently.
Images courtesy of FedEx
Kali lands in Memphis on her way to St. Louis in a custom half-ton cage.
Kali’s daylong journey began in Rochester, New York, where he boarded a FedEx Express 767 flight to Memphis inside a specially-designed, 1,000-pound aluminum crate. During the three hour flight, Steve Bircher, the Saint Louis Zoo curator of mammals and carnivores, monitored Kali’s condition, hydrating and even talking to him next to the cockpit, according to the Associated Press. A veterinarian and two attendants few with Kali and monitored his comfort throughout the flight.
Once they landed in Memphis, workers unloaded him from the plane and wheeled his crate into a waiting FedEx Custom Critical Truck staffed by drivers who are trained to handle sensitive shipments, according to a company blog post about the unique journey. Before hitting the road for the second leg of the trip, attendants helped Kali take a water break by using a giant syringe to squirt water into his cage.
Can you see Kali in there taking a water break?
FedEx workers monitored the temperature in the truck as they made the drive to St. Louis, keeping it steady at 55 degrees. Kali’s veterinary attendants followed close behind, stopping the caravan several times to monitor his condition.
When he got to St. Louis, zoo staff unloaded Kali from the truck and moved him into a quarantine area, where he’ll live until his habitat opens to the public in June.
“That was exciting,” Kali’s FedEx driver said after making the special delivery in a video released by the company. “One of the most unique shipments we’ve had. And we’re once again part of history, which I enjoy quite a bit.”
Kali arrives at the Saint Louis Zoo.
Kali won’t make his big debut until June 6, and the opening of the McDonnell Polar Bear Point exhibit, a 40,000-square-foot habitat that offers visitors a 22-foot viewing window. In the meantime, Kali will be in quarantine so he can acclimate to his new home and diet and so he won’t spread pathogens to other animals in the zoo’s care, the zoo said in a statement.
"Kali arrived safe and sound and is adjusting nicely to his new surroundings," Bircher said.
As SLM previously reported, Kali had a difficult start in life. An Inupiaq Alaskan hunter killed his mother before realizing she was nursing a cub. To rescue the orphaned polar bear, the hunter followed his mother’s tracks to a den 1,500 away, bundled the cub in a pair of ski pants and drove him in a snowmobile to Anchorage, where he stayed at the Anchorage Zoo until he was moved to Buffalo, New York.
