St. Louis Zoo Polar Bear to Make Debut After FedEx Arrival

The St. Louis Zoo's first polar bear since 2009 is ready to make his public debut in a new exhibit.

St. Louis media outlets report 2 ½-year-old Kali will be unveiled Saturday in the new $16 million, 40,000-square-foot McDonnell Polar Bear Point facility. Kali arrived at the zoo in early May from the Buffalo Zoo in New York, where he lived for two years after being orphaned in Alaska.

Kali's trip to St. Louis included being flown by FedEx from New York to Memphis, Tennessee, before he was loaded into a temperature-controlled truck that completed the trek to Missouri.

He has been in quarantine for the past month as he acclimated himself to his new surroundings, which offers land and coast areas along with a 50,000-gallon body of water.