Zoo had to put 34-year-old brown bear to sleep
animals
On Tuesday – a few days after waking up from hibernation – the 34-year-old brown bear Blanca had to be put down in the Salzburg-Hellbrunn Zoo. The condition of the elderly bear had recently deteriorated rapidly.
Blanca had to be relieved of her pain on Tuesday morning, said zoo veterinarian Miriam Wieser: “The bear suffered from a degenerative disease of the musculoskeletal system. Several large joints were affected and despite pain medication she was getting worse every day.”
“An absolute character animal”, for 32 years in Salzburg
In the end, the bear didn’t even get up: “So we had to make the decision in her interest to let her go,” added Sabine Grebner, the zoo’s managing director. With the death of Blanca, one of the “grey eminences” of the zoo is gone: “She was a real institution and an absolute character animal.” Just a month ago, a star of Austria’s oldest puma in Hellbrunn – more about this Zoo has to put the puma to sleep (salzburg.ORF .at; 21.1.2022).
Died on January 22, 1988 in Bern Zoo. Since July 1990 she has been living in Salzburg Zoo. Grebner says that her zoo keepers regarded her as a very attentive, sociable, but also stubborn contemporary: “Over the past few decades, whole generations of zoo visitors have grown up with her.”
Son “Aragon” now alone in the bear enclosure
Son Aragon has shared the enclosure with his mother for 29 years – he is now also at an advanced bear age. He will certainly be looking for Blanca in the coming days, even if he had the opportunity to “say goodbye”, said Grebner: “Of course we will now be watching him very closely. Since bears live solitary lives, he should soon get used to the changed situation.”
In the wild, brown bears live between 20 and 30 years. The oldest known animal died in captivity at the age of 47.