Barle’s Story: One Polar Bear’s Amazing Recovery from Life as a Circus Act

257 Pages·2014·3.1 MB·English

by  Else Poulsen

Bärle’s story
one polar bear’s amazing
recovery from life
as a circus act
Bärle ’s
story
Else Poulsen

foreword by
g.a. bradshaw
Vancouver/Berkeley
Copyright © 2014 by Else Poulsen
14 15 16 17 18 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, without the prior written consent of the pub-
lisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing
Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright license, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Greystone Books Ltd.
www.greystonebooks.com
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
ISBN 978-1-926812-87-8 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-926812-88-5 (epub)
Editing by Nancy Flight
Copy editing by Maureen Nicholson
Cover design by Gerilee McBride
Interior design by Jennifer Griffiths
Cover photograph by Tom Roy
Photographs by Detroit Zoological Society, Kathy Jo Ferguson,
Carrie McIntyre, Betsie Meister, People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA), Else Poulsen, and Tom Roy
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada
Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the
Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax
Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Canada
Book Fund for our publishing activities.
Greystone Books is committed to reducing the
consumption of old-growth forests in the books it publishes.
This book is one step toward that goal.
To Bärle
foreword ix
by G.A. Bradshaw
acknowledgments xi
prologue 1
1 a fedex’d polar bear 4
Bärle’s Arrival at the Detroit Zoo
2 berry picking with polar bears 23
How Bärle Ended Up in a Caribbean Circus
3 the rescue 42
A Solid Team of Political Opponents
4 the road to recovery 59
Bärle’s Quarantine
5 a pothole in the road to recovery 81
Bärle’s Quarantine Revisited
contents
6 the language of bears 98
Bärle’s Vicarious Learning
7 a good first impression 128
Introducing Bärle
8 friends with benefits 143
Bärle Chooses a Mate
9 teaching life skills to a polar bear 163
Bärle Raises Talini
10 does one bear’s life matter? 185
Asking Questions
notes 206
references 211
index 220

foreword
Do you know what the mathematical expression is for
longing? The negative numbers. The formalization of the
feeling that you are missing something. peter høeg
LIfE EvolvES much like the number line. Days traverse one by
one—1, 2, 3... 300—gradually accumulating into months, years,
and decades. When a loved one passes, units of time reverse from
union to separation, and while absence may blend into the fabric
of everyday life, its trace remains; a yearning lingers. The Portu-
guese call this beckoning emptiness saudade.
There is something of saudade in the story of Bärle. It is
achingly beautiful. The author brings a weaver’s skill to the task
of drawing together multicolored threads of observation, expe-
rience, and science to create a dense and fascinating tale. We are
granted a rare opportunity to see a polar bear up close in ways
that no adventure tour, nature show, or visit to the zoo could
ever provide. Our privilege springs from the intimate knowledge
that Else Poulsen has absorbed over years spent in the care and
recovery of captive bears. In the unfolding of Bärle’s story, we are
brought backstage, behind the scenes, from her beginnings in a
snowy arctic den to the hollow cruelty of circus and the drama
Ix