Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

By Kale Williams

SALT LAKE CITY -- Nora rears back on her hind legs and slaps her lips hungrily as she pulls a fish off tongs a zookeeper offers through bars. A zoo veterinarian looks at Nora’s toes for any signs of stress as the bear stands with paws pressed against the fence in a holding area at Utah’s Hogle Zoo.

Five months after she left the Oregon Zoo, Nora, Portland’s beloved polar bear cub, seems to be settling into her new digs in Salt Lake City. She’s passed some important milestones, cavorting with her new companion, Hope, an important step in her socialization.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in late 2015 to a mom who abandoned her after just six days, then raised by humans, Nora developed a number of health issues — both physical and mental — during her early life.

She’s doing better, according to her keepers, but some of the issues she faced in Portland will likely dog her for the remainder of her life.

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[Read “The Loneliest Polar Bear,” which chronicles Nora’s early struggles and the role she plays for a species in peril]

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A rough start

Nora’s keepers in Salt Lake City were under no illusions when they heard she was coming. They knew she had never had a meaningful interaction with another bear. They knew she suffered from anxiety and that her bones were malformed.

And they knew thousands of Nora’s fans, from Columbus to Portland and beyond, would be watching their every move.

After a brief quarantine last fall, the bears were introduced and some of Nora’s fans were concerned. Where once they saw a playful, gregarious bear, they saw Nora subdued and solemn. They sounded off in the comments of every Facebook post, asking why Nora looked so sad and, in some less charitable cases, accusing the zoo of not doing right by Nora.

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It’s a Hope and Nora update plus a note about climate change - LIVE #utahclimateweek **Nora fans - please note - Nora is doing great! She is playful and she is adjusting. Yes, there are times she likes to keep her eye on Hope but that's perfectly normal and they're getting closer everyday. Nora is just like any of us in that we're not all continually playing every second of the day. She's doing great - no need to worry.** Posted by Utah's Hogle Zoo on Thursday, October 12, 2017

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At first, Hope and Nora’s relationship was slow to develop. Nora watched Hope, who outweighed her by more than 100 pounds, warily. Hope was patient with Nora, never pushing too hard for physical play. As October stretched into November, keepers still hadn’t seen the two engage in the type of play that would show they were truly comfortable with each other. But every day they got closer and, in early December, keeper Janine Bartling had a feeling that things were going to change.

“This is going to be the week,” she told the other keepers.

And then, one morning, the bears met nose-to-nose as they were headed from a holding area into the public exhibit.

It was like a dam broke.

The two immediately started playing like everyone had been hoping since they arrived, bonking each other with their giant heads, slap-boxing and wrestling around in the dirt.

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Bartling put a call out over the radio and cheers went up all over the zoo.

“They’ve completely gotten over everything,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “It was such a huge deal.”

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Hope and Nora playing! Hello friends! Following many weeks of introductions, both bears keeping a wary eye on one another, figuring out the nuances of each, checking out their surroundings and so forth - we are pleased to share with you this wonderful video taken yesterday of Hope and Nora playing together. Please enjoy - and Happy Holidays! Posted by Utah's Hogle Zoo on Tuesday, December 12, 2017

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Mixed blessings

With Nora and Hope making good progress, the zoo staff focused more intently on Nora’s health. Nearly all of the stereotypical behaviors observed in Portland — the pacing, the tantrums, the shunning of keepers — had ceased.

Erika Crook, the zoo vet in Utah, weaned Nora off Xanax and she responded positively. They started weaning her off Prozac as well and, assuming she continues to progress, she should be antidepressant-free by mid-March.

There is still concern about her joints, though.

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Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

They compared X-rays of Nora’s elbow (pictured above on the left), taken over the summer in Portland, to images of Hope’s joints and there is a clear difference. Nora’s elbow has a large lump of bone above the elbow where Hope’s has none. When she walks, Nora’s front limbs bow out in what Crook describes as her “pitbull stance.”

They took thermal images of Nora, one of the few non-invasive ways they could get an idea of what was going on inside her joints. She has already developed some of the signs of early-onset arthritis.

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Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

The images showed areas of heat on Nora’s left side, which had always caused her more trouble than the right side, concentrated around her shoulder and elbow. While the images can show areas of potential inflammation, they can’t show whether an animal is experiencing pain.

“Human patients can tell us when it hurts,” Crook said. “Nora can’t do that.”

Crook sent the X-rays to a musculoskeletal expert who treats humans with similar ailments to help determine whether Nora is suffering, and if so, to what degree. Crook is still waiting on the results of the analysis.

Nora is a small bear, weighing just over 370 pounds and she spends a great deal of time in the water. Both facts serve to limit the stress on her joints.

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Signs of trouble

Her skeletal problems all stem from metabolic bone disease, which she was diagnosed with at just 7 weeks old after her body rejected the synthetic formula developed by nutritionists in Ohio. Bones that should have grown in straight were twisted and cracked. Vets found fractures in at least six places, including weight-supporting arm bones and her pelvis.

But after a change in her diet, she appeared to heal quickly and, around the age of 1, was moved from Ohio to Portland.

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Courtesy/Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

The move was meant to give Nora a companion of her own species in Tasul, an elderly bear who keepers hoped would act as a mentor to the precocious cub. Nora never completely warmed up to Tasul, though, and the older bear had to be euthanized shortly after Nora arrived.

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Nora had so few interactions with other bears that she came to depend heavily on humans. Many of her keepers said they thought the young bear may have believed that she herself was a person. That dependence, at least in part, caused Nora to develop anxiety. When her human keepers left her alone, she threw violent tantrums, barking like a seal and batting her food bowls around her enclosure.

She paced and moped and, eventually, experts recommended she go on antidepressants to ease some of her symptoms. She got better, but her symptoms never completely dissipated.

It was clear the only thing that would cure Nora’s mental maladies was learning how to be a polar bear.

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Courtesy/Utah's Hogle Zoo

A change of scenery

With construction of a new bear habitat looming at the Oregon Zoo, Nora was moved to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City where she could be paired up with Hope, a bear her own age who also needed a new home.

Many unknowns still remained. Would Nora’s physical condition worsen as she put on weight and further stressed her malformed joints? Would her anxiety spike when left in the care of a new team of zoo keepers? Would the stress of sharing space with another bear worsen her mental state?

She brought all of that baggage with her when she arrived in Salt Lake City in September.

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Courtesy/Utah's Hogle Zoo

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An unknown prognosis

Nora’s long-term prognosis is still unknown. The extent of her bone deformities won’t be fully understood until she finishes growing, around the age of 4. And even then, the level of discomfort she’s feeling will be hard to discern.

Crook is hopeful Nora will live at least into her teens and possibly longer. They are treating her with a combination of anti-arthritic medications, administered daily in a mixture of Cheerios and peanut butter.

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Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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Kale Williams | The Oregonian/OregonLive

“We’re keeping a very close eye on her and doing everything we can to make her as happy as possible,” Crook said. “But it could be, if the bone issues progress quickly and we think she’s in a lot of pain, we’ll have some tough decisions to make.”