A polar bear in the Calgary Zoo killed another polar bear by drowning it. While people saw this as a tragedy, the author suggests there could be more to the story. The author proposes that the killer polar bear may have been driven to suicide by the stresses of captivity, and asked the other bear for help since previous suicide attempts failed. The author argues the polar bears may have been trying to convey a message to people about their living conditions through this public act.

1. A small bear story

2. One day at the Calgary Zoo,

3. a polar bear killed another polar
bear by holding his head under
water until he drowned.

4. People were horrified that such a
huge fluffy beast could be so cruel.

5. People thought it was a tragedy.

6. What do people know?

7. It’s all a matter of perspective.

8. For all we know it could have been
a love story.

9. Who knows what those bears get to
talking about in the middle of the
night.

10. Maybe the one polar bear told the
other polar bear that he just
couldn’t take it anymore.

11. There was no where to run.

12. All they ever got to eat was dead
frozen fish.

13. And what about all those people
staring at them all day long. And
taking flash photo after flash photo
even though they weren’t suppose
too.

14. Maybe all the one polar bear had to
look forward to was the dark the of
night.

15. And the night wasn’t even that
dark, because the polar bears lived
in a zoo next to Memorial Drive in a
big money city with big bright lights.

16. It’s possible that with the endless
click click click of the
cameras, something went click
click click inside the head of one of
the polar bears.

17. There were several attempts at
self- drowning.

18. The one polar bear would
swallow enough water to sink
himself to the bottom of the
small pool in the zoo enclosure.

19. He would lay there, hoping against
all hope that the weight of his
mammalian bulk would be enough
to keep him from rising up to the
surface again.

20. But time after time gravity
betrayed him and the inevitable
resurrection came.

21. So one day, the one polar bear
told the other polar bear about
how he suffered.

22. Then the one polar bear asked the
other polar bear to hold his head
underwater until it was done.

23. And the asked polar bear said yes
and it was done.

24. Not in the privacy of night when the
zoo is closed, but in broad daylight
as the people watched and their
camera’s clicked and their flashes
flashed.

25. It’s almost like those polar bears
were trying to tell the people
something, doing the do in the
broad daylight like that.

26. Who knows.

27. The one polar bear didn’t leave a
note and the other polar bear didn’t
really understand anything. He was
just doing what the one polar bear
needed him to do.

28. Was it a tragedy ?

29. Or was it a love story?

30. Does it matter?

31. In the end, the other polar
bear, the one who did the do, was
shot and killed.

32. Two dead polar bears. Hmmm