ZOO TALES
POLAR BEAR PAYTON’S FIRST YEAR AT THE NORTH Story & Photos by Kristi Johnson Marion CAROLINA ZOO
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year ago, the North Carolina Zoo welcomed Payton, a 1,000-pound male polar bear to its Rocky Coast habitat. Payton was born and grew up at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and named after the late Chicago Bears NFL team running back Walter Payton. Now 18 years old, he was relocated from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee on the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP) last January in hopes that he and the Zoo’s female polar bear, Anana, might produce a cub. Payton’s keepers have enjoyed working with him and getting to know him over this past year. Keeper Kirsten Perkins described his personality as “derpy,” or
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goofy. “He easily gets excited about things. He has big ears, and they perk up when he’s excited, and his head starts bobbing up and down.” He seems to enjoy playing with his enrichment items, including large plastic garbage cans perfect for a 1,000-pound polar bear. “He loves to put them on his head and fold them up into tiny pieces,” said Kirsten. “And it’s good for him to practice this natural instinctive ‘crushing’ behavior,” said Keeper Melissa Vindigni. Speaking of instinctual behavior, “We noticed that he seems to love how Kirsten smells,” explained Melissa. “Sometimes, we have her hug the enrichment items before we toss them to him.”
