The St. Louis Zoo plans to spend about $20 million on a new polar bear habitat within the next five to seven … but is still looking for polar bears to put in it. The zoo’s last polar bear died two years ago. A zoo spokesman says the zoo could get bears from Alaska but is looking for specific animals to snsure genetic diversity for its research and breeding program.
Congressman William Lacy Clay and some other members of Congress are asking the Interior Department to allow importation of the bears the zoo is loking for.
The zoo wants to establish on a research and breeding program for the bears, which are dwindling in population as arctic ice melts.
