Brown bear bound for Duluth zoo

Residents eagerly await arrival of Trouble

(Metro, June 23, 2000)

By Julie Westfall
Daily News Reporter

A wild brown bear named Trouble, who broke into the Alaska Zoo in April, will fly on a passenger jet Saturday to a Minnesota zoo where he will live with another Alaskan bear.

Trouble was known for strolling around Anchorage neighborhoods, so he fits a tradition at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth. According to the Duluth News-Tribune, the zoo's former residents include Mel the Kangaroo, famous for escaping and hopping through Duluth before he was put down after a near-fatal blow to the head from another kangaroo. Spike the Porcupine also became a local television celebrity after he escaped the zoo several times.

''He's going to have the good life down here,'' said Lake Superior Zoo director Mike Janis.

Trouble got his name after he tore through the zoo's fence -- from the outside. He ate duck and goose food and tried to visit the zoo's grizzly, Jake.

''A reporter asked if we had a name for him and we just jokingly called him Trouble, because that's what he's been into lately,'' said curator Pat Lampi. He has been taking care of Trouble since the bear was shot with a tranquilizer dart after what was at least his third zoo break-in this spring.

Even though Trouble was blamed for the death of Mama Goose, the zoo's favorite snow-white goose, the Lake Superior Zoo can hardly wait for his arrival. Trouble has been big news since the zoo decided to adopt him.

''It's hard to go anywhere without somebody asking about Trouble,'' Janis said.

Three TV networks in Duluth covered Trouble's story and a radio station that calls itself The Bear wants to be there when Trouble is presented to the public.

The bear will be quarantined for at least a month to stop him from passing diseases to other zoo animals. City and zoo public relations officeare still working on specific plans. But Janis said Trouble's coming-out party will include the song ''Trouble Right Here in River City'' from the Broadway musical ''Music Man'' and a visit from Duluth's mayor.

The zoo has been looking for bear since a male Kodiak brown bear, Fozzie, died from a seizure last year. Trouble will eventually join a female Alaska Kodiak brown bear in a zoo exhibit after curators acclimate the two bears for four to six months.

''We want to make sure they actually get along before we mix them,'' he said.

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Bear Taxon Advisory Group matched Trouble with the Minnesota zoo. The Alaska Zoo does not have enough room for the 300-pound bear, whose temporary home was an old polar bear exhibit.

Trouble can not be released into the wild because he has lost his fear of humans. Lampi said Trouble is the first bear he has known of who tried repeatedly to break into a zoo.

''It's a beautiful bear, but I'm happy to see him go just because we don't have a proper place to keep him.''

Northwest Airlines will fly Trouble for free in a cargo hold from Anchorage to Minneapolis, the home of its corporate headquarters.

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