Inuka, the last polar bear in Singapore's zoo, was euthanised earlier this week when vets ascertain that he was not responding to treatment, and his health was worsening. He was 27 (born Dec 26, 1990).
The zoo held a "farewell" for Inuka.
And his keepers shared memories of Inuka
[Inuka] knew the waterfall was powered by a water inlet within the pool. Initially, it used its paw to block the inlet, but it was unable to stop the water flow completely. So, it used its toy – a large and flat red disc – instead.But age caught up with Inuka:
Inuka knew exactly what it was doing, because it would watch the waterfall as it performed its trick. “He knew how it worked … he would spend the entire day trying to stop it,"
As Inuka’s hind legs grew weaker in its later years, its ability to stand on land was compromised. But it continued do so in the three metre-deep pool...As age catches up with me as well, I can identify with that feeling of pushing my body too far.
... Inuka would “not feel its pain or its weight in the water”... it would play and wrestle with its toys, getting so excited that it would “twist and turn” many times.
But this exertion often proved “too much for its body”, and over the next few days, Inuka would become either unresponsive or did not want to move.
Polar bears in the wild live to 15 to 18 years, when they are too old to hunt successfully.
At 27, Inuka had lived well passed the age of bears in the wild, and his physical condition meant that he would not survive in the wild.
