Winnipeg's female polar bear named Aurora
An 11-month-old orphaned polar bear that came to the Winnipeg zoo in October has been named Aurora.
The Assiniboine Park Zoo adopted the female cub after it was found orphaned near a Churchill airport. Manitoba Conservation officials had waited for days after for the cub’s mom to return but she never did.
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Jim Duncan, director of Manitoba Conservation’s wildlife branch, said it would have been cruel to leave the animal in the wild.
The name was chosen by students at the Duke of Marlborough School in Churchill. Students at the same school earlier named another polar bear, which came to the zoo in early October, as Storm.
That bear was shipped to Winnipeg from Churchill after attacking a man in Churchill.
The zoo also houses Hudson, who arrived earlier this year.
Zoo officials are also making a trip to Argentina this month to assess the health of Arturo, another bear that could call Winnipeg home.
If he is strong enough, he will join the existing brood at Assiniboine Park Zoo's Journey to Churchill exhibit, which is slated to open in 2014.