The world can rest easy now that Frankenstein has been drowned by a huge polar bear at the San Diego Zoo.
The 11-year-old female polar bear, Tatqiq, did the Halloween deed after finding a lawn ornament in the shape of a Frankenstein monster. After tossing and wrestling with Frankenstein, she dragged him to the water for the coup de grace.
Should you ever find yourself in the water with Tatqiq or another polar bear, watch out. This species is uniquely adapted to life on the sea ice of the Arctic
Ocean, and for millennia it has roamed the vast and pristine circumpolar
Arctic.
In other San Diego Zoo news, a pair of 6-month-old jaguar cubs celebrated their first
Halloween with jack-o'-lanterns stuffed with a little raw meat and a
"bloodsicle." The cubs and their mother spent the morning rolling the
pumpkins, finding the treats inside them, and playing tug of war with
the orange squash.
At the other end of The Harry and Grace Steele Elephant
Odyssey (exhibit), three California condors, swooped down to claim their Halloween
surprise. The gruesome scene included rats stuffed inside a mammoth and
saber tooth cat skull.
As for what happened to Tatqiq after her encounter with Frankenstein: She flopped down and took a nap. It was all in a day's work for a monster-policing polar bear.
(Images: Tammy Spratt, San Diego Zoo)
