LINCOLN PARK — The Lincoln Park Zoo's new polar bear, Siku, celebrates his seventh birthday Saturday and his first in Chicago, and the public is invited.
What do you get a half-ton polar bear for his birthday? How about a tiered, 7-foot-tall paper mache cake filled with fish, meat and, a personal favorite, hard-boiled eggs?
"Being that he's 9 feet tall, he'll tower over it and quickly demolish it," said Mark Kamhout, the zoo's curator of mammals. Of course, the polar bear's keen sense of smell to detect what's inside should help as well.
Festivities are set for 11 a.m. Saturday in the south yard of the 8,000-square-foot outdoor portion of the new Arctic Tundra exhibit, which longtime zoo visitors will remember as where the spectacled bears used to be.
That area has a grated wall to allow zookeepers to train him daily, which usually takes place about 1 p.m. But the space is suitable for a birthday party as well.
Siku seems to understand he's the zoo's new star.
"He's kind of a showoff," Kamhout said. "He does seem to get energetic when there are lots of crowds around him."
He certainly knows how to play to the crowd. Siku's formal debut a few weeks ago ended with him sailing a floatation ball into the glass wall of his diving pool and following it right into the faces of those watching from the underwater viewing area.
According to Kamhout, a recent evening in the annual and ongoing ZooLights fest saw a line form to get into the underwater viewing area just to see him up close.
Kamhout said he also recently observed Siku interacting with boys pressing their hands to the glass in the so-called Ice Cave area.
"He's doing great," Kamhout said. "Every day it's something new with him. He's very energetic and is very curious.
"He's very interested in people," Kamhout added. Siku came to Lincoln Park a month ago from the Louisville Zoo, where he had a reputation for getting along famously with keepers and visitors, "and we're certainly seeing that here."
So no need to arrange a birthday clown. Siku figures to provide all the entertainment himself by demolishing his own cake. Just don't expect him to hand out slices to guests.
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