The Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo is working on designs to bring to Saskatoon city council to expand and update their bear exhibit.
“We are looking to expand the space that (grizzly bears) Koda and Mistaya currently have. Right now, we are at minimum standards for our CAZA (Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums) accreditation, and we really want to get above that,” shared zoo operations manager Jeff Mitchell.
The project will be split into three phases with the first being the grizzly bears. Koda and Mistaya will be relocated to a different part of the zoo into a bigger exhibit. Then, the zoo hopes to be able to make exhibits for black bears and polar bears. Lastly, they have the opportunity to bring in a full pack of 8-10 artic wolves in addition to the three female wolves at the zoo already.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“I want to make sure we are looking toward the future and saying, ‘If we build a new exhibit, what other animals can we display?’ and that is one of the reasons we are looking at this new bear exhibit.” shares Mitchell.
When it comes to the upkeep of these exhibits, Mitchell explained that taking care of bears is a lot of work.
“Most of the time it takes anywhere from two to three keepers a day for one to two polar bears. So that is a lot of work and this year we’ve actually dedicated a keeper a day just to work with our bears to help them with their environment because we know it is a little small and we know we want to do better for them,” shared Mitchell. “So we actually dedicated almost eight hours a day of a zoo keeper working specifically with our bears,”
Mitchell explained that he is hopeful that through the city, the zoo society and fundraising that they will be able to afford this costly project.
“I know the City of Saskatoon loves the zoo just as much as I love the zoo and I know we would love to see polar bears here,” said Mitchell.
Sadly, there will be no new bears or wolves any time soon, as Mitchell predicts fundraising and construction could take the zoo up to six years to complete.
In the meantime, exciting news will still be coming out of the zoo this spring.
“We have a brand-new animal coming out this week that we are excited to announce, but you’re going to have to wait for that.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
