Northern Ont. polar bear chows down on a massive pumpkin

Polar bears Henry and Ganuk at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat celebrated Polar Bear Week with a 1,481-pound pumpkin. Lydia Chubak reports.

A northern Ontario polar habitat benefited from an award-winning pumpkin donated by Jeff Warner of Aidie Creek Gardens, who gave the habitat a 1,400-pound pumpkin.

The donation was to the delight of Henry, the habitat’s 1,200-pound polar bear, who more than had his fill of the massive pumpkin.

Amy Baxendell-Young, manager of Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat, said the donation came about purely by chance.

“One of my staff was driving up from down south and ended up directly behind this pumpkin as it was on the highway,” Baxendell-Young told CTV News.

“Jeff was driving it up the highway.”

The staff member saw the Aidie Creek Gardens info on the side of the van, so she gave them a call.

“And pretty quickly they got back to me and said, if we don’t take it, it’s just going in the compost,” Baxendell-Young said.

“They brought it right to us. So that was great.”

A little hesitant at first

She said pumpkins are a popular seasonal treat for bears, and the habit normally receives a bunch of them as donations after Halloween. So she already knew that Henry loves pumpkins.

Although he was a little hesitant when it first arrived.

“Henry actually came out and didn’t know what it was — and got actually quite defensive … because I think he was just quite shocked at this new thing in his enclosure,” she said.

But, as the habit’s live video feed showed, it didn’t take long for him to chow down. While Henry loves the taste, Baxendell-Young said the pumpkin is “an empty food for them.”

They can eat as much as they want without gaining weight, unlike brown bears, who store the food for hibernation.

“It tastes really good, but it does just go directly through their digestive systems,” she said.

“There’s going to be a lot of pumpkin poop for us to pick up in the coming days.”

The donation came during Polar Bear Week, an event created by Polar Bears International.

“It’s to bring light to polar bears and to celebrate them as they’re coming to congregate on the coast up near Churchill, Man., and all along the Hudson Bay in the James Bay Coast as they’re waiting for the sea ice to reform so they can head back out to start hunting again,” Baxendell-Young said.

It’s also an opportunity to remind people of the challenges polar bears are facing. Ice is forming later and later because of climate change, and polar bears need the sea ice to hunt seals. That means the bears are struggling to get enough to eat and are more prone to disease.

“The winters are warming, the ice-free period is getting longer,” Baxendell-Young said.

The Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat is a home for polar bears that can’t live in the wild. It’s currently caring for two bears: Henry and Ganuk.

While once at risk of closing, she said the habitat is now thriving, attracting plenty of visitors.

“We’re a long way from that,” Baxendell-Young said.

“We’re moving forward in a really great direction.”

Information about events at the habitat and how to visit can be found on their website.