Oregon Zoo Polar Bear Family Reunion As Nora's Sister Arrives

PORTLAND, OR — When is a family reunion not really a family reunion? When you're talking about two polar bear half-sisters who have never met. That is what is going on at the Oregon Zoo.

Amelia Gray, a 5-year-old polar bear, arrived last month from the Maryland Zoo. She joins Nora, who is one year older. The two share a mother but had different fathers.

Also, while they are both now residents of the Oregon Zoo where they are enjoying the zoo's new Polar Passage habitat, they have yet to meet.

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Amy Cutting, who oversees the polar bear area says that while it won't be an actual family reunion, "we do hope these two will form a positive relationship."

Older sister Nora arrived in Portland when she was just one year old. She had been abandoned by her mother at the Toledo Zoo where she was born, forcing her caretakers to hand feed her to keep her alive.

After two years here, the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums Polar Bear Species Survival Plan then recommended she be transferred to the Hogle Zoo in Utah. She spent three years there before returning to Portland this past spring to help open the zoo's Polar Passage habitat.

Meanwhile, like her sister, Amelia Gray is an Ohio native, having been born at the Columbus Zoo. She turns 5-years-old today. She was then sent to live in Maryland before being transferred her last month.

Cutting says that Amelia Gray she was named in part to represent that she is a reminder that her species is endangered. Amelia means "defender." Cutting adds that Gray refers to a patch of gray fur along the left side of her neck.

As to when visitors might get to see the two sisters together, Cutting tells Patch that it will be up to the bears, noting that "Polar bears have a pretty solitary nature" so "it will be up to them."

One of the advantages of the zoo's new habitat is that it has two separate living areas, each with its own saltwater pool and places for the bears to hang out. The two areas are connected so that if the bears decide to visit, they'll be able to do that.

"Amelia Gray is not as outgoing as Nora, according to her keepers, and she likes to have some alone time, so we plan to give her as much space as she needs to settle in and be comfortable in her new home," Cutting says.

Nora, chilling out a few weeks before her half-sister arrived. Photo via Oregon Zoo.