There’s a new bear in town at the Sequoia Park Zoo.
The young female arrived on a placement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in mid-March but her public debut is still a little ways off, with the zoo saying in a release that she will first “undergo a typical month-long quarantine period” before being “gradually introduced” to fellow bear denizen Tule.
The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, principal funder of the zoo’s Bear and Coyote habitat, named her Ishŭng (pronounced “Ee-shung”), which means “She likes to eat” in the Bear River dialect of Athabask.
“We are excited to bring another bear to our zoo family,” Animal Curator Amanda Auston says in the announcement. “As with all new animals, we will work hard to ensure a smooth transition for her — and our boy Tule, of course!”
According to CDFW spokesperson Peter Tira, Ishŭng was brought to the zoo after being removed from Butte County’s Kirshner Wildlife Sanctuary on March 17 with several other animals after the agency denied the sanctuary’s request to renew permits that had allowed the facility to “possess and display both native and nonnative species.”
“Those permits expired in 2024 and CDFW denied their renewal application due to a variety of animal welfare concerns and violations of the California Fish and Game Code,” Tira says in an email to the Journal. “A criminal investigation is ongoing having to do with animal welfare violations. Since they no longer are a permitted facility, Kirshner is no longer able to keep these species.”
The Sequoia Park Zoo, Tira notes, “has been a longtime partner with CDFW, and they’ve provided great homes for some of our wild bears that couldn’t be returned to the wild for one reason or another.”
Zoo Director Jim Campbell-Spickler says they don’t know a lot about Ishŭng’s history, including how she came to be at the animal sanctuary or whether she was born in captivity. But Campbell-Spickler says there’s no indication she was mistreated, noting she’s comfortable around people and appears healthy overall, with “great teeth and clear eyes and ears.”
As Ishŭng’s name denotes, however, her weight is what the zoo describes as “atypical for her frame, sex and species,” but Campbell-Spickler says that can be addressed with nutrition and activity plans, adding that she’s already lost about 20 pounds since arriving.
“She is friendly to everyone, she’s just a sweetheart,” he says, adding she’s also “really dexterous” interacting with her enrichment toys or even little sticks she finds in the habitat and is “just very curious,” sniffing around and taking in the sights and sounds of her new home.
The announcement of Ishŭng’s arrival was greeted with an outpouring of welcome wishes on the zoo’s Facebook page, with many saying they were happy to hear Tule will have a new companion after the unexpected death of Noni in October.
Tule and Noni were the first to live in the zoo’s bear and coyote habitat after coming to the zoo in 2023 as yearlings. The two were rehabilitated together at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Center after separately being found as orphaned cubs in 2022.
CDFW officials deemed both bears unsuitable for release. In Tule’s case, it was because he will never be able to grow back his full coat — an impediment to survival in the wild — due to what Auston previously described as “residual scar tissue from the severe skin infection he suffered as a cub.” Noni, meanwhile, never showed an appropriate fear of humans.
Similarly, Ishŭng shows an affinity for people, according to Campbell-Spickler.
The newest addition at the zoo that is not only the oldest in California — having been established in 1907 — but one of the smallest in the nation to be accredited by Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Ishŭng is estimated to be around 3 years old, or about the same age as Tule, he says.
The two have been “informally introduced through several layers of fencing” — enough to be able to see and smell each other — but “have yet to meet properly,” he says.
“It will be a gradual process where they get closer and closer,” Campbell-Spickler says, adding there’s “nothing to suggest that won’t go well.”
So far, Campbell-Stricler says, “she seems to be adapting to her new home,” adding that Ishŭng often stays up late playing with toys or lying on her back looking up at the night sky, noting “she seems to be experiencing things that perhaps she’s never experienced before.”
“The first night she was in the new enclosure, she elected to be outside,” Campbell-Spickler says. “It was like a drizzly rain and I don’t know if she ever encountered rain before. … She seems to enjoy the rain and watching the trees blowing in the wind.”
“We are curious to get to know her habits and, in that way, we are learning with her,” he says.
Ishŭng also appears to have taken a particular shine to one zookeeper who spent a lot of time putting together enrichment activities, as well as stools and platforms for her to use, leaving his scent behind, Campbell-Spickler says.
“She enjoys the things he built for her and seems very fond of him,” he says.
For those wondering, don’t get any hopes up about Tule and Ishŭng having cubs of their own, with Campbell-Spickler saying Tule will be neutered to make sure that doesn’t happened.
As Auston previously told the Journal, baby bears may be cute but “there is no shortage of American black bears in the wild or in human care, and there is no need for a breeding program in zoos,” noting the Sequoia Park Zoo is there for bears that can’t be returned to the wild.
While Noni is never far from their thoughts, Campbell-Spickler says the zoo staff is looking forward to the upcoming day when visitors will be able to see Ishŭng out with Tule in their habitat complete with a stream, a pool to swim in and dozens of trees to climb, noting “people will be visible to her and she seems to enjoy people.”
“I just have a feeling she’s going to be a rock star here,” he says.
This article appears in Cal Poly Presents’ Season of Change.