The two-year-old male named Kali, was orphaned as a cub,
arrived at his new home on Friday.
The bear was shipped in by plane and truck ahead of its
scheduled June 6 debut at the zoo's new Polar Bear Point Exhibit.
Zoo authorities say that Kali was resting comfortably and
would remain in quarantine for about a month, which is standard practice that
allows an animal to become acclimated to its new home.
Kali spent the past two years at the Buffalo Zoo after he
was orphaned in Alaska's wilderness, when a hunter unknowingly killed his
mother, unaware she had a cub.
Kali's latest adventure came Tuesday, when FexEx - having
over the years handled everything from endangered sea turtles to seals and
pandas - stepped in with air and ground transportation to get a bear halfway
across the country.
Kali caught a three-hour flight on a FedEx Express 767
jet from Rochester, New York, to Memphis, Tennessee, secured in a specially
designed, half-ton aluminum crate while monitored by a veterinarian and two
attendants, the company said in its blog.
The crate was placed behind the cockpit wall, allowing a
Buffalo zoo representative and Steve Bircher, the St. Louis Zoo's curator of
mammals and carnivores, to monitor and hydrate him and 'basically talk to him,'
said Susan Gallagher, the St. Louis zoo's spokeswoman.
At Memphis, FedEx said, the bear was wheeled to a waiting
company truck, its drivers trained in handling sensitive shipments.
Attendants who followed in a vehicle frequently checked
Kali's condition, providing water along the way during the five-hour drive in
which the bear was in a cargo area kept at 55 degrees.
Kali's new digs are a 40,000-square-foot habitat offering
visitors starting in a month a glimpse of him through a 22-foot window.
'We applaud the work of the Saint Louis Zoo and wish Kali
a bright and happy future in his new home,' Neil Gibson, FedEx's vice president
of corporate communications, said in a statement Friday.
Special cargo: The entire journey from Buffalo, NY to St. Louis took a whole day.
