Polar Performance

He must have known we were watching the whole time. First, he was rambling along the wall, dipping his head toward the water, watching us through the glass with one eye, and pacing back and forth along the edge of the pool, his enormous paws seeming soft on the wet stone. He stopped to look at a large rubber ball, and suddenly batted it into the water with a splash that bounced up to the glass. The ball bobbed and floated towards the window and he meandered to the other side before launching his entire body into the air and plunging into the water with a wave which impacted the entire picture viewing window and elicited audible gasps and exclamations of amazement from the ten or so of us watching from the inside.

In the water, his bulky body became graceful, and his paws aligned themselves as fins, working to push himself through the water in order to insert his head into the bottom of the ball the same way a toddler would do it. His performance was far too engaging for me to pull out my camera and start snapping. But picture it: a ten foot tall, several hundred pound polar bear delicately swimming in the icy cold February water at the Brookfield Zoo with a big rubber ball covering his head.

It was only when he started up with the bone that I pulled out my camera. Yes, a bone. He’s just a giant puppy dog. Even though his head is big enough to swallow a seal. Or a red-hooded toddler.