In this week’s In Otter News, we meet Tundra and Banks the Alaska Coastal Brown Bears. They’re both three years old. They came into care of the Lake Superior Zoo when both bears were orphaned as cubs.

“Without being able to have their mom, they definitely not have made it in the wild,” Lizzy Larson, LSZ’s Director of Animal Management, tell us. “So thankfully they were building this brand new exhibit around the time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked if we were able to take these two brown bear cubs.”

The cubs were about 40 pounds each when they arrived at the zoo. They’re now upwards if 700 pounds. Lizzy adds, “these guys are going to be even larger than you see them today.”

They’ll be going into torpor soon. It’s similar but not a true hibernation. Torpor means that they are going to to wake up at least one time during the day to go to bathroom and eat food.

Lizzie tells us that fat bears are ones that are ready for the cold, “We get to see the nice hump on their back, and that’s how we know that they are prepped and ready for the cold Minnesota weather coming up.”