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Charlie celebrates milestone
POCATELLO - It wasn't a typical birthday cake, but the ice-fish creation the crew presented Charlie the grizzly bear for his 32nd birthday seemed to hit the spot.
Kate O'Connor, curator of education at the Ross Park Zoo, said the staff used wash tubs to make the frozen grizzly treat, and of course, Charlie's roommate, Stripes, an 18-year-old female, got a cake too. ''We didn't want her to feel left out,'' O'Connor said. In the wild grizzly bears live about 15 years.
While Charlie suffers from arthritis, he is otherwise healthy. The bears seemed to enjoy the attention they got from about 150 guests who turned out for the birthday party Saturday at the Ross Park Zoo.
O'Connor said the two bears live together well, as long as Stripes doesn't try to take Charlie's food. While the 700-pound bear seems lazy and laid back, O'Connor said, he's still a wild animal and he is dangerous.
Charlie came to the Ross park Zoo in 1978 from Alaska. ''He was a trouble maker,'' she said.
Stripes was born at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio and came to Pocatello in the 1980s. The two bears enjoy a strictly platonic relationship. As O'Connor explained, most bears in captivity are spayed or neutered.
The Pocatello zoo is looking to build a new bear enclosure, along with enlarging the lynx and cougar exhibit. O'Connor hopes the project will be completed in Charlie's lifetime.
The project, currently in the fundraising phase, will cost $2.5 million. ''We've raised about $700,000 so far,'' she said. ''We're hoping some good, kind-hearted people will pick up the slack.''
O'Connor said the Pocatello Zoo has several acres of undeveloped land for the expansion. By Debbie Bryce
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