Were Polar Bears ever at Houston?

[TheImmigrant1]

I was chatting with a friend not too long ago about the Houston Zoo and some animal they used to have but no longer do. Koalas used to be in the now gone Red Panda enclosure a while ago, Hippos used to have their own Hippo House, they had a Snow Leopard in the now Cougar enclosure, Red Wolves in old maps, and footage from the 80s on YouTube shows they had Bison, Kangaroos, Fennec Foxes, and Camels. But the one animal I can’t find any proof of is polar bears, my friend asked their dad and he said that they did. Apparently they were in what was once the Andean Bear enclosure now the Black Bear enclosure and had a moat of water where moss grew and stained the bear’s coats green, but I can’t find anything to see if this is true. I tried looking at the zoos website on the way back machine, old YouTube videos, and found nothing. So does anyone remember if Houston ever had polar bears?

 

[zoologicus]

The studbooks lists a pair;

- an unknown male, born August 7th, 1967 and transferred to Houston on May 7th, 1968.

- a female, listed in Ulrike Joerres' database (Eisbären im Zoo - Polar Bears in Zoos) as "Sedna", born at the Buffalo Zoo to Maggie and Herman on November 27th, 1967 and transferred to the Houston Zoo on September 12th, 1968.

The male died February 9th, 1976, with Sedna following on July 17th, 1983.

Outside of those two sources I haven't been able to find any information through (admittedly brief) searches either!

 

[TheImmigrant1]

Interesting, I also managed to find an article (Houston Zoo eyes big changes in advance of 2022 centennial) where a woman named Michelle Cruz says that she doesn’t miss the polar bears who were obviously unfit to live in Houston. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Jake From State Farm]

Here's a photo of a pair of bears in Houston, dated around the 1930s.

2009-0006-0149

 

[StoppableSan]

Here's a photo of a pair of bears in Houston, dated around the 1930s.

2009-0006-0149

That looks more like Detroit's old bear grotto to be honest.

 

[Jake From State Farm]

That looks more like Detroit's old bear grotto to be honest.

I got the photo from the Houston Public Library's digital archive. ( 2009-0006-0149 ) I assumed its Houston but possible it could be Detroit.