The story in the St. Louis Today was not so much about the Polar Bears but about how the festive season is bringing new business opportunities to the city, but the picture in the paper that came attached tells a whole different tale. The zoo at St. Louis has tried its luck with keeping polar bears several times in the past and unfortunately for the authorities there every time the saga ended with a disaster. It all started in May 2005 when a polar bear named Churchill died after eating a lunch that consisted of plastic and plastic from the bin in the zoo. (Yup, sheer negligence more than bud luck)
Just five weeks following Churchill’s death another polar bear named Penny died of infection and after her death the zoo officials found out that she was pregnant and would have given birth to two little cubs had she been alive. Finally, Hope the last polar bear died this April of cancer. With that the officials lost all hope and decided that they will just bring in electronic replacements; or so it seems as of now.
With many species being wiped out off of the surface of the planet at an alarming rate that unfortunate day might now be far away when every zoo in the world sports only replicas and stuffed models… sad, but so very true.
