Berlin, the polar bear that survived flash flooding at Duluth zoo, dies at 33
A polar bear that spent more than 20 years at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth — famously surviving the 2012 flood that inundated the zoo — has died.
Berlin died Wednesday at the Kansas City Zoo, where she had spent the past 10 years. She was 33 years old — “the oldest polar bear in human care in the United States, and perhaps in North America,” officials at the Kansas City Zoo reported.
“Berlin had been experiencing hypertension and renal failure, and treatment options had been exhausted so the difficult decision to euthanize her was made,” the zoo reported.
Berlin was born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1989 and named after the Berlin Wall that fell that year. She arrived in Duluth a year later, where for many years she shared a habitat with fellow polar bear Bubba.
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“The two of them charmed locals and tourists alike with their playful nature and beauty. Many residents of the Twin Ports fondly remember visiting them at the zoo,” Lake Superior Zoo officials recounted in a Facebook post after news of Berlin’s death.
Bubba died in 2007. In June 2012, flash flooding swamped much of Duluth, including the Lake Superior Zoo. Berlin briefly made her way onto a rock outside her enclosure. She was tranquilized and later transported to Como Zoo in St. Paul, before moving to a permanent new home at the zoo in Kansas City.
Lizzy Larson, director of animal management at the Lake Superior Zoo, cared for Berlin for three years and recalled how “she could solve every puzzle we gave her and I never found a toy she didn’t like.”
“I know that she has touched countless hearts in her 33 years of life,” Larson said, in the zoo’s social media post. “We will all be mourning her loss.”