SeaWorld’s 21-year-old female polar bear, Szenja, died unexpectedly Tuesday, leaving the San Diego marine park with just one other bear, currently on loan to the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Her death came following week-long symptoms of appetite and energy loss, but her passing remains unexplained. SeaWorld will be conducting a necropsy to determine the cause of death, park officials said. It will be several weeks before the necropsy results will be available.

“Szenja was a beloved member of our animal family, so this is a very difficult day for all of us,” said Al Garver, SeaWorld San Diego’s vice president of zoological operations. “Szenja not only touched the hearts of those who have cared for her over the last two decades, but also the millions of guests who had the chance to see her in person. We’re proud to have been a part of her life and to know that she inspired people from around the world to want to protect polar bears in the wild.”

(Courtesy of Sea World San Diego)


SeaWorld’s only other polar bear, Snowflake, also 21, was shipped to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium at the end of February for breeding purposes, and there is no current return date, said SeaWorld San Diego spokesman David Koontz.

At the time it became known there were plans to send Snowflake to Pittsburgh, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals quickly voiced its objections.

In a Feb. 1 letter to SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby, PETA argued that moving Snowflake to Pittsburgh would leave Szenja “sad and alone.” The letter, signed by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, said the two polar bears had been companions for 20 years.

“Snowflake and Szenja have already been deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them,” Newkirk wrote. “Please do not add to their suffering and sentence more polar bears to a dismal fate by moving forward with this ill-conceived plan.”


SeaWorld explained at the time that it was participating in a national program to increase the numbers of the threatened polar bear population, which scientists estimate to be between 22,000 and 31,000.

PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman said Szenja’s death should be a wake-up call to SeaWorld to stop breeding animals.

“Szenja died of a broken heart,” Reiman wrote in an email. “After losing her companion of 20 years when SeaWorld shipped Snowflake to the Pittsburgh Zoo in order to breed more miserable polar bears, Szenja did what anyone would do when they lose all hope, she gave up.”

SeaWorld in recent years has been the target of heavy criticism, fueled in large part by the 2013 “Blackfish” documentary that raised concerns about the marine parks’ practice of holding killer whales in captivity.


As the parks continued to experience falling attendance and revenues, Manby announced last year that SeaWorld would end captive breeding of the orcas and that it would replace the longstanding theatrical Shamu show with an orca encounter highlighting the animals’ natural behaviors in the wild. San Diego will be the first park to debut the new attraction, scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend.

Szenja, born at the Wuppertal Zoo in Germany in October 1995, came to SeaWorld when the park opened its Wild Arctic exhibit two years later. Over the last week, Szenja’s caregivers and veterinary staff had been monitoring her listless condition, but her passing nevertheless was unexpected, the park said.

Citing Polar Bears International, SeaWorld said polar bears typically have a life expectancy of 15 to 18 years in the wild, although some can live as long as 20 to 30 years.

In a news release, SeaWorld pointed out that for many years, Szenja served as an ambassador for arctic animals, raising awareness of polar bears among the nearly 50 million guests who have visited Wild Arctic.


She also has participated in various research studies related to polar bear hearing sensitivity, social habits, reproductive hormones and seasonal behavior patterns.

Staff writer Phillip Molnar contributed to this article.


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