Philadelphia Zoo Welcomes Newest Resident: A 200 Pound Bear
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The newest arrival at the Philadelphia Zoo is getting used to her surroundings there in Bear Country.
At 2 1/2 years old and weighing 200 pounds, Kayla has made her public debut.
"She's our new female sloth bear," says Donna Evernham, Curator of Ungulates and Carnivores at the Zoo.
She says Kayla has been getting settled for about a month, coming from the San Diego Zoo.
Sloth bears are known to chow down on termites. They use their long, curved claws to dig into the ground and logs, and suck up insects like a vacuum cleaner.
"The coolest thing about sloth bears is they are insectivores," Evernham adds. "So they mainly eat bugs.'
Keepers trained her with a noise that lets Kayla know she's going out to the public exhibit, and coaxed her with honey, peanut butter, dried fruit and, of course, bugs.
As young children gathered at the rail, just below a rocky outcropping beyond a moated area at the Bear Country exhibit, a curious Kayla pranced around, sniffing everything in the overgrown grassland replete with wooden, log-like climbing structures.
"She likes to climb and dig," Evernham says about Kayla, who she says didn't disappoint living up to her job description.
