Assiniboine Park Zoo celebrates International Polar Bear Day early

International Polar Bear Day isn't until Tuesday, but Winnipeg's local zoo celebrated all weekend long to bring awareness to the hazards of climate change for polar bears.

"[The goal is to] get people thinking and inspired about what they can do to help polar bears and that will help all of us," said Stephen Petersen, head of research and conservation at Assiniboine Park Zoo.

The annual international event takes place on Feb. 27, but the zoo spent the weekend educating people with speakers, topic tables and the ever-popular Breakfast with the Bears, during which people eat breakfast at the zoo's Tundra Grill while the bears eat their breakfast just outside the restaurant's many windows.

The zoo is home to the Leatherdale Polar Bear Conservation Centre, which houses orphaned or zoo-born bears brought to the centre for research. The bears would generally not survive on their own in the wild.

Climate change threatens some bear populations, including those in Manitoba and northern Ontario, Petersen says.

"There's less ice in certain areas and the habitat is changing, so we're really concerned about our southern populations," he said. 

"Further in the Arctic, it seems like populations are a bit more stable because the ice is changing again, but it's changing from bad habitat ice to good habitat ice. So it makes for a really complex sort of problem."

Sea ice is vital to the bears' survival. They use it to hunt ringed seals, and without it, there is no food and bear populations dwindle or begin to move.

The weekend activities highlighted practical things people can do to help mitigate climate change, including lowering the thermostat and recycling. But this year the zoo focused on reusing things rather than just recycling, Petersen says.

"We've had lots of concerns about textile waste recently, so we've got a craft and lots of ideas at the zoo so that we can get people to reuse their textiles. So [we did a craft to] braid dog and cat toys, get one more use [out of old clothing.]"