Two young polar bears from the Denver Zoo are moving farther north.
Families gathered Thursday afternoon to watch Koda and Nuka, two popular 1-year-old male cubs, perform youthful antics in their den at the zoo’s Northern Shores before they transfer to Pennsylvania in May.
“What a ham you are,” Joanne Kinnaman, 47, said as Koda pushed his snout into a plastic ring, launched it into the water then belly-flopped in after it. “I’ve never seen (bears) so active.”
The cubs will be transferred to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium as part of a species survival breeding program.
“It’s a computerized dating service for animals,” said Tiffany Barnhart, Denver Zoo spokeswoman.
The program, organized by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, helps animals thrive by introducing them to animals other than their relatives, she said.
“The two boys could never breed in Denver because the only two girls are their mother and their aunt,” Barnhart said.
There will be four bears left at the zoo.
Zoo visitors have been watching the rambunctious cubs since they were born, first on video monitors and then in the main exhibit since March 2005.
Juliana Pasquali of Westminster was bummed at the news.
“They always move all the polar bears. I don’t like that,” Juliana, 9, said.
Barnhart said polar bears have been popular in Denver ever since Klondike and Snow, another cub pair that was relocated in the 1990s.
Koda and Nuka will star in a new exhibit, Water’s Edge. It will be completed in April 2007. A virtual tour is available at pittsburghzoo.com.
“They are going to be the Klondike and Snow of Pittsburgh,” Barnhart said.
Staff writer Julianne Bentley can be reached at jbentley@denverpost.com.
