Assiniboine Park Zoo’s newest polar bear cub officially has a name – Mantayo. On Thursday morning, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy (APC) announced Mantayo beat out Duke, Marly, and Fletcher in an online poll to name the orphaned cub. “You showed up in a BIG way for this cub, casting a record-setting number of votes in our naming poll!” the conservancy wrote in a Facebook post. Mantayo and the other three names were shortlisted by the Town of Churchill and students from Duke of Marlborough School in the northern Manitoba community. According to the conservancy, Mantayo represents the Cree name for Churchill’s River of Strangers. The now 10-month-old male cub arrived at the zoo’s Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre in late August after his mother was found dead in northern Manitoba. Mantayo has spent the last two months adapting to his new home and, according to zoo staff, the “spunky and mischievous” cub can often be seen going for a swim or rolling around. Mantayo is one of seven polar bears living at the zoo.
