An orphaned brown bear cub captured near Mud Bay in 2006 has died after two decades in captivity. 

The Minnesota Zoo announced Feb. 24 that staff euthanized the bear after its arthritis and severe joint degeneration worsened over the past year. He was one of three orphaned brown bears raised together and later featured in the zoo’s “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” exhibit. 

Alaska Department of Fish and Game records do not extend before 2010, leaving few official details about the cub’s condition when he was captured.  But, according to a story in the July 20, 2006 edition of the Chilkat Valley News,  the cub was about 60 pounds when it was captured near a Mud Bay home on July 13 of that year. 

State wildlife biologists said it had apparently been fed dog food for about a week before it was  captured. “The bear appeared to come to the sound of dog food being poured in the bowl. He was being fed and on a schedule. He knew the cues and came right up. It didn’t seem to bother him at all that we were there,” Fish and Game biologist Ryan Scott is quoted as saying at the time. A family that lived nearby was given a warning for feeding the bear, according to the article. 

Once the wayward bear was picked up in Haines, he was taken to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where he joined up with what would eventually become a trio of young bears captured by state biologists that year. There was Sadie, named after a creek near Kotzebue where she was found. Then in July came Haines. In August, a hunter shot a sow on the Kenai Peninsula and later discovered she had cubs.

It was at the conservation center where Diana Weinhardt first encountered and named Haines in what would become a decades-long relationship between Minnesota and Alaska. Weinhardt worked at the conservation center from 2005 to 2007. She helped care for, and named,  all three cubs as they arrived

“I sometimes referred to them as the layers of chocolate,” Weinhardt said. “Kenai was caramel. Sadie was milk. Haines was very dark.” 

All three cubs were in their first year and were neutered or spayed before spending their lives together at the zoo. Sadie was the smallest, but could keep the boys at bay. 

“What Sadie wants, Sadie gets,” Weinhardt said. “Those boys sometimes were double her size and she’d back them both up at the same time.” 

Then-conservation center staff member Diana Weinhardt said zoos and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums had made a joint decision not to breed black and brown bears anymore. “There were enough nuisance animals that we couldn’t provide homes for all of them,” she said. 

The bears eventually moved to the Minnesota Zoo’s “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” exhibit, designed to recreate a rugged northern coastal ecosystem. The enclosure included a large outdoor habitat with a pool, a dig pit and year-round access to covered outdoor space.

The bears also had an indoor den where visitors could watch their behavior through soundproof glass.

“It’s one of the best bear exhibits in the country,” Weinhardt said.

“It had a storyline of the coast of Russia where all of these animals were found in the wild,” Weinhardt said. “Amur leopard, wild Russian boar, brown bears, sea otters, Amur tigers. So the storyline was very strong.” 

It wasn’t just the three bears. When guests entered the exhibit they first saw four otters – three of whom were found as orphans off the coast of Alaska. That included Capers, who was found near his dead mother in Kachemak Bay; Jasper, who was rescued near Homer; and Rocky who was found abandoned near Craig. 

“Alaska orphans really kind of carried half of the exhibit,” Weinhardt said. 

Weinhardt now holds the title of Curator of the Northern Trail, which means she’s in charge of the keepers who take care of the animals and the exhibits. But, their building is across from her office. “To this day, I still go there for my visits. Keepers do 100% of the work with them, but there’s still a bond,” she said. 

Weinhardt said the bears developed distinct personalities as they aged. Sadie was strong-willed, Kenai was curious about people, and Haines grew into a lanky protector.

“Haines was just very well behaved. He stood up on his back legs a lot. Kenai would get scared and he would run to Haines,” she said. 

In a newsletter farewell tribute to Haines, zoo staff described him as calm, collected and clever. “Keepers say he had a knack for doing the least amount of work for the maximum reward of food during enrichment sessions.” 

Haines is the second of the trio to die. Kenai was found dead in his enclosure two years ago. Weinhardt said they had been treating him for cancer. Weinhardt said one keeper has been with the three bears since they came to Minnesota. 

“That’s what’s tough about the zoo field, you have these really strong bonds,” she said. 

State bear biologist Anthony Crupi said 20 years is a solid lifespan for a captive male brown bear, though Weinhardt said she’s seen captive bears live longer, particularly early in her career. 

“When I first started in the late 1970s, bears in captivity were living in their late 20s, early 30s,” she said.

Improvements in veterinary care and nutrition have helped some captive bears live longer, she said. Still, she said it was the right time for Haines to go. Before they decided to euthanize him, Weinhardt said the zoo had been training Haines for cold laser therapy on his joints for his arthritis. She said a necropsy later confirmed severe degeneration in his hip and other joints. 

Weinhardt said the zoo got hundreds  of comments on a social media post from people who shared photos and memories of seeing Haines over the years. 

“I was sobbing just reading these from people that have come to the zoo. Guests knew their names, they knew which one was which,” she said. 

With her two lifelong companions gone, Sadie is now the only remaining bear in the exhibit. Zoo staff are watching to see how she adjusts.