Have you ever remodeled your house? The construction noise and dust seem to go on forever. In the end, it’s all worth it! That is what San Diego Zoo polar bears Chinook, Kalluk, Tatqiq, as well as their keepers have been living with for what seems like months. But we’re getting through it fabulously! Although Kalluk wasn’t sure about it at first, he has now been promoted to construction supervisor and can often be seen watching the work in the new management yard while soaking his paws in the drinker on what we call reindeer ridge.

Kalluk supervised the digging of the new pool and the concrete pour for the fence poles. Along with this, he must inspect the wonderful new transfer chute our in-house welders have designed and built for our bears to move from the bedroom area into the new yard. Good news is we expect all construction to be done by the end of the month!

Out front, you may notice a tower-like building by the beach area. This is just a temporary barrier while a new guest experience wall is installed. Once all the new interpretive elements are installed next year, we’ll be able to give guests a chance to meet our bears with no glass barrier and talk about our fabulous trio (or more!).

You also may have seen the cleaning of the Plunge. Our incredible water quality team drained, scrubbed, bleached, and refilled the 130,000-gallon pool in just over 2 days! And yes, we finally had the chance to see what was in the stash pipe (see post, Polar Bears’ Stash). We removed three balls, one tube, and one cow bone. We couldn’t remove one bright pink ball and one red ball . . . humanly impossible! Tatqiq’s first job when coming out to the pool once it was filled was to check her stash pipe and see what treasures she would need to replace.

Inside the bedroom area, the final preparations for Chinook’s den are being completed. The den is now equipped with a camera and microphone. All the controls and monitors are now in the keeper kitchen. We are still hoping for funding for the Internet cable and cameras for the new management yard. The final work is to install all elements of the den and outer chambers. This will happen when Chinook tells us through her behavior she is ready to be secluded. Right now, she still shows she wants to go out on exhibit for short periods every day and then is quite content coming in and sharing her day with her keeper.

We are now also doing ultrasounds with her two to three times a week. Chinook is unbelievable in how cooperative and extremely patient she is as we work through this new field of polar bear ultrasound. Just as in the hearing study (see post, Can You Hear Me Now?), Chinook maintains eye contact with her keeper. It is an amazing feeling having her stare so deeply and trustingly into your eyes. It is sometimes hard to remember that this has never been done anywhere in the world! We are having incredible success and believe if Chinook doesn’t den up too soon before fetal development, we have an excellent chance of seeing the beginnings of her pregnancy. Truly this is due to our very special bear.

For the next few weeks you’ll continue to see our trio out exploring, sleeping, and playing on exhibit. Once the yard is completed, our bears will be introduced to their new “digs.” Chinook will be first, since this will be her yard until her hoped-for cubs are old enough to go out into the big exhibit. Shortly after this, we suspect Chinook will be letting us know it’s time to seclude herself. It’s so hard waiting and not knowing is she or isn’t she!

JoAnne Simerson is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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