11.27.2008

Coming Out Planned for Polar Bear Couple


GTNews Puzzled Japanese zookeepers have cleared up a mystery over a lack of chemistry between a couple of polar bears as both turn out to be female, a Japanese zoo said Wednesday.

Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old "male" polar bear, and his 11-year-old female partner, Kurumi, have been living together since June at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

But much to the frustration and puzzlement of zookeepers, the bear couple, on a breeding mission, showed no signs of breeding, and Tsuyoshi has never gone into rut even during "his" mating period.

"Observing his behaviors, we got suspicious as to whether Tsuyoshi was really a male," the zoo said in a statement.The zoo put Tsuyoshi under an anesthetic earlier in the month for a gender checkup, and learned he was a she."My first thought was we gotta split these two up," said Yoshio Yamaguchi, head of the zoo.

But gay rights protesters had other plans.

The angry, vocal protests by gays and lesbians heartbroken by the passage of Proposition 8 showed up at the zoo in full force. "We had the signs already made up and a trip to the zoo sounded fun!", said Barry Gay, spokesman for the group. "It's apparent the bears are used to the idea they can't mate and are very comfortable with each other".


A coming out party for the bears is scheduled for next month.

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