Visitors of the Toronto Zoo said their goodbyes to one-year-old polar bear cub Juno ahead of her departure to Winnipeg.

Many people attending the zoo on Saturday got to catch their final glimpse of Juno before she moves to Assiniboine Park on Wednesday.

Curator of mammals at the Toronto Zoo Maria Franke told CTV News Toronto that guests had the opportunity this weekend to celebrate International Polar Bear Day and say goodbye to Juno.

“We are very excited Juno, our most recent polar bear cub, is on an exciting journey now to Winnipeg,” she said.

Franke said it is vital for Juno to be integrated with other polar bears that are around the same age as her.

“It is very important that polar bears socialize with other polar bears,” she said. “(Assiniboine Park) unfortunately received two orphan bears out of the wild in Winnipeg last year and so we’re sending her to Winnipeg so she can be introduced to these cubs that are the same age as her.”

Assiniboine Park’s polar bear program is designed to help orphan bears as they are discovered.

At the Toronto Zoo, many families gathered around the polar bear area to observe Juno in her natural habitat and honour International Polar Bear Day, an annual day that aims to raise awareness about the negative impact of global warming on the polar bear species.

Franke said since the polar bear’s habitat is shrinking due to climate change, they are moving closer into cities and beginning to interact with humans.

“The fact that they’re not able to get on the ice and consume a lot of their primary food, seals – they have evolved for years to eat seals – we don’t know how they are going to evolve to eat other things.”

Despite research being conducted through a nutrition program to see what else the species can eat, Franke said the most important thing is to prevent the ice from shrinking.

Franke said she encourages people to not idle their car, recycle more and bundle up so you can turn your thermostat down.

Although Juno is set to leave this week, Franke said it is undetermined how long she will be staying at Assiniboine Park.

“It all depends on how things go there,” she said. “She will likely come back. (Assiniboine Park) wants to make sure that they have enough space in case other orphan polar bears arrive this season.”

Juno, born on Remembrance Day of 2015, was named after Juno Beach in Normandy, France, where Canadian soldiers fought on D-Day in 1944.

One year ago, she made her public debut at three-months-old at the Toronto Zoo on Feb. 27, 2016.