A French Canadian polar bear arriving at the Calgary Zoo has come with an interpreter in tow as the facility strives to ease his transition to an English-speaking environment.
The 20-year-old bear, Yellé, arrived at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo this month from Quebec. One of his caregivers from the Zoo Sauvage de Saint-Felicien made the trip with him.
The Wilder Institute said in an Instagram post that the caregiver is sharing the French cues Yellé learned during his training in Quebec with the Calgary zoo’s animal care team.
“We’ve been getting a lot of questions about whether our newest arrival, polar bear Yellé ‘knows’ French,” the institute said, adding that “some of the French words and phrases he’s familiar with may carry over as he settles in here with us.”…