Mayor Greg Fischer and other zoo officials will officially open the town and bear habitat of Glacier Run to the public when they literally break an ice ribbon and invite the general public in to see the town and the polar and grizzly bears for the first time. Two 6.5 foot ice pillars frozen with Salmon, Makrel, Trout and Herring will be dismantled and presented to Arki, the polar bear and Inga, Otis and Rita, the grizzly bears, to help celebrate following the opening ceremony. Two special guests will be on hand to present Mayor Fischer with an “ice key” to Glacier Run. Dr. Steve Amstrup (bio below) a renowned scientist and polar bear expert will also be on hand for the opening ceremony.

WHEN:

Tuesday, April 26 at 10 a.m.

WHO:

Honorable Greg Fischer, Mayor

John Walczak, Louisville Zoo Director

Mark Wheeler, Zoo Board President

Dr. Steven Amstrup, Polar Bears International Senior Scientist

WHERE:

Glacier Run

Please call prior to coverage and sign in at the receptionist’s desk in the administration building.

VISUALS:

10 a.m. – Ice Ribbon breaking and official opening

10:40 a.m. – Ice pillar blocks presented to bears

Bears!

Public reaction to the bears and town

Designed as an imaginary town on the edge of the arctic wilderness, Glacier Run is modeled after Churchill, Canada, the polar bear capital of the world, where humans and wildlife have learned to co-exist. The exhibit offers spectacular views, captivating stories of the arctic and unique opportunities for close-up encounters with the magnificent and iconic polar bear, as well as grizzly bears.  Guests can interact with zoo keepers, learn about current challenges to arctic environments and animals, and discover how incremental changes in our everyday activities and behaviors can make a difference for our planet and these magnificent species.

Dr. Steven C. Amstrup is the Senior Scientist for PBI. In July of 2010 he retired after 30 years as project leader for Polar Bear Research at the United States Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and an associate professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He earned a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Washington (1972), a M.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Idaho (1975), and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (1995). He has been conducting research on all aspects of polar bear ecology in the Beaufort Sea since 1980. He is a past chairman of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group and has been an active member of the group for 30 years. He has authored or coauthored over 100 peer reviewed articles on movements, distribution and population dynamics of large mammals, and is the senior editor of a recent text on population estimation methods. Dr. Amstrup led the team of researchers that prepared 9 reports that became the basis for the decision to list polar bears as a threatened species in 2008.