Polar Bear Drowns Her Cub At Auckland Zoo

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28371, 2 September 1957, Page 10

Polar Bear Drowns Her Cub At Auckland Zoo

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Sept. 1. The polar bear cub at the Auckland zoo is dead. She was drowned by her mother about 2.30 p.m. today while a crowd three and four deep watched. The cub was 11 weeks old. Some visitors believe the mother deliberately held her daughter under the water, and that she earlier picked the cub up in her paws and pushed her under.

But one eye-witness, Mr G. E. Tattersall, of Epsom,, said tonight he thought the mother accidentally drowned the cub while playing with it. “The cub was asleep when 1 arrived at the pit,” Mr Tattersall said. “About five minutes later, shey woke up, and tottered around on the ‘mainland’ while several women around the pit sighed audibly. Her right hind leg slipped into the water, and she pulled it out, shook it, and continued to walk unsteadily around the edge of the pool. “But she slipped again, and fell right in, head first. She came up, and started paddling. A few seconds later, her mother came up underneath her. She had dived in off the island. The mother started playing with the cub, holding her between her paws while she swam on her back. “She kept sinking undei; the

water and coming up again taking the cub with her. The cud was struggling strongly, and it appeared as if the two were having a game. I didn’t realise what was happening at first, and then it sunk Jn that the baby was not getting enough air.’ ’ Head Under Water “The mother was holding the cub*on her chest, and while she was breathing easily when she dame up, the cub’s head was pot breaking the surface. For fully 10 more minutes while the mother played with the cub, the cub did not get her head out of the water. About 20 minutes after she fell in, her mother pulled her out. * “She stood up on her hind legs,” Mr Tattersall said, “holding the cub up to, the crowd with one paw, and then in her mouth.”

Two keepers who were called tried to get hold of the cub with a wire noose ori the end of a long pole, but every time the mother picked up her cub and moved her out of the way. “I was very disappointed we were not told earlier what was happening,” said the zoo director (Mr R. W. Roach). ,‘Tf we could have got the cub, we might have been able to try artificial respiration, but the mother beat us to it. We can’t get near the cub with her on guard.” Under the impression that the mother had deliberately drowned her daughter, Mr Roacl\ said: ‘lt is so completely out of keeping with her former behaviour. lam baffled. Quite frankly, it just doesn’t make After the mother pulled her cub from the water and realised she was dead, she sat over her for the rest of the afternoon, occasionally sniffing her, nuzzling and licking her, pulling her in closer with her mouth and sometimes picking the cub up and walking from the island to the mainland and back.