Polar Bear Affectionately Nuzzles the Humans Who Raised Her | Nature Bites

At nine months, it was time to wean Aggie off milk onto solid foods. But first, with vet Ken McQuiston's help, Mark had to figure out what food to give a growing polar bear, an Arctic predator with a highly specialised diet. You would think that the primary diet of a polar bear would be fish, but in actual reality, polar bears don't actually catch many fish. They eat seals. One of the prime requirements of a polar bear is to have a diet high in vitamin A, and seal liver has got a huge amount of vitamin A in it. Mark and Ken couldn't feed Aggie fresh seals, but they came up with an alternative. Raw chicken, meat and salmon, all served up with salmon oil and vitamin supplements. The diet would give Aggie the 10,000 calories a day she needed and the right balance of fats, protein and nutrients. The process of weaning her off the bottle to solid food was relatively quick. Within two weeks, she was off milk and on solid food. She had a fantastic appetite, and that made us all feel good. She was getting fed twice a day, and she was just packing it on. Now, Aggie lived permanently outdoors within her grassy enclosure, which included an all-weather cage. Mark's biggest concern was not the cold, but the hot Canadian summers. Polar bears, they can overheat, and a healthy polar bear can overheat at zero degrees. Polar bears are specially adapted to the freezing Arctic, where they live in temperatures as low as minus 45 degrees Celsius and have features not found on any other bear. Each strand of fur is hollow, trapping warm air just like the textile fibres in a winter jacket. Their skin, rarely seen below the fur, is black. It works like a solar panel to absorb the sun's heat. And finally, yet another feature that keeps a polar bear warm. A healthy polar bear, she has a four-inch layer of fat in between her skin and her muscle, and that acts as insulation. If Mark was going to stop Aggie overheating in Canada's temperate climate, he had to make sure she could cool off. So he gave her access to her pool, right next to her cage, 24-7. Aggie could go for a swim any time she liked. And Mark was also keen to keep up his interaction and regular training with Aggie, ready for any acting role that might come her way. In the years following her movie debut, Aggie's on-screen career took off. She appeared in TV series and big brand commercials. Directors no longer cast Aggie for cuteness, but for her growing size and strength. Sharing a set with a quarter-ton predator is a risky proposition. On film sets, Aggie started becoming protective of Mark. Aggie would just get snarky, just not happy. She would drop her head real low, and then open her mouth real wide, and it's not yawning because she's tired, it's an aggressive behavior. By 1999, animal trainers Mark and Dawn Dumas had a problem. The polar bear they'd raised from a tiny cub, now weighed a third of a ton and stood over two meters tall on her hind legs. Aggie and Mark were closer than ever, both at home and on their trips to film locations. But now, she seemed to resent sharing him with other people, which was a problem on set. She didn't like directors talking to me, because she feels that my attention is supposed to be on her. Fortunately, advances in digital technology in the 90s offered a solution, opening a new door for Aggie and Mark. It became easier to film action against a green screen and seamlessly combine it with actors or a computer-generated background. Now, Aggie could work almost alone on set with Mark. She seemed to enjoy the stimulation without the competition. Aggie is the only polar bear to have had a career in TV and film from cub to fully grown adult. We've made it so that every time she's filming, it's positive. And she has a great time doing it. She likes the stimulation. It's always fun. It's always good. Since the 90s, Aggie has starred in everything from TV dramas to feature films. And she's appeared alongside many co-stars, including Burt Reynolds and Russell Crowe. Stay. Stay. Good girl. Today, Aggie's 22 years old and weighs 360 kilos. Good point. Good girl. Four times what Mark weighs. She's still filming, averaging a couple of studio shoots a year. Smile. Good. Good girl. Good. To maintain her health and size, she must eat an average of five kilos of food a day. And she stays fit swimming in her custom-built pool. But most of all, she loves her time with Mark. My favorite time of the day is the morning with her. Because it's like, no one's there. It's just me and her. If I lay down with her, she'll come over and she's laid on top of me, and it just feels wonderful. Mark and Dawn achieved what many considered impossible. Raising a polar bear as part of their family. No one's ever gotten this close to a polar bear like the relationship I have with her. That I know of. More than two decades ago, Mark and Dawn Dumas made a commitment to care for a tiny polar bear for the rest of her life. At 22, Aggie's considered an elderly bear. For Mark, the bear they raised has more than returned the commitment. It's a magical thing to have a relationship with a polar bear. Her having a happy existence is the most important thing for me. And for Dawn.