Cranbeary the widowed Denver Zoo polar bear gets another chance at Thanksgiving romance

Cranbeary has been unlucky in love. Frosty, a 25-year-old male who was the last bear destined to mate with the Denver Zoo's frisky female, died of liver cancer a month after Cranbeary arrived in Denver, making her the Anna Nicole Smith of polar bears. But the zoo is trying again...

By Melanie Asmar

November 23, 2011

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Cranbeary has been unlucky in love. Frosty, a 25-year-old male who was the last bear destined to mate with the Denver Zoo's frisky female, died of liver cancer a month after Cranbeary arrived in Denver, making her the Anna Nicole Smith of polar bears. But the zoo is trying again with Lee, a twelve-year-old male who recently arrived from Detroit.

Will Cranbeary get stuffed this Thanksgiving?

The zoo sure hopes so. According to leading bear-ologists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are only between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears left in the wild. They live in places such as Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Norway and Russia and are threatened by poaching, pollution and climate change that causes loss of sea ice. Zoos hope to help remedy that by pairing captive animals together, "which ensures healthy populations and genetic diversity among zoo animals."

It also ensures effing adorable baby animals, of which we're 100-percent in favor.

Here's hoping those two crazy kids make a go of it.

See Cranbeary and Lee's ~~Match.com profile pictures~~ zoo publicity shots below.

More from our News archives: "George the rare black rhino, R.I.P.: Denver Zoo euthanizes 28-year-old endangered animal."

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Melanie Asmar is a staff writer for Westword. She joined the paper in 2009 and has won awards for her stories about education, immigration and epic legal battles. Got a tip? She'd love to hear it.

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