'As healthy as a young bear': Calgary Zoo's aging grizzly defies the odds

Skoki the bear was born around 1987 near the mountain village of Lake Louise, but the grizzly has been living in a manicured habitat at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo for the past 26 years.

Originally known as Bear #16, Skoki was removed from the wild in 1996 after becoming habituated to humans.

Now estimated to be 35 years old, Skoki moves slower than he used to. His teeth are worn and his hearing is fading. There is arthritis in his joints. Time is starting to catch up, yet he remains a surprisingly healthy bear.

"His bloodwork came back as healthy as a young bear," said Jax Hoggard, supervisor for the Canadian Wilds at the Wilder Institute.

"Obviously, there's some old-age related things going on internally, but nothing that is affecting him greatly at this moment."

In the wild, male grizzlies don't often live much past their early 20's – though some coastal bears have been documented in their mid-30's. The oldest known bear in captivity was 44 years old.

"It's a bit of a luxury with human care – that we do get to those old age brackets that they would never meet in the wild," Hoggard says.

When in the wild, Skoki had trouble with people after repeatedly being approached by tourists while he was feeding along the side of the highway. There were bluff charges and while no one was hurt, the young male was tagged.

There were more incidents, but Skoki's undoing came in the spring of 1996: a trip through a campground where he investigated a tent, followed by a stroll through the Samson Mall and a sniff inside the door of Laggan's Deli largely sealed his fate.

On July 5, 1996, he was trapped and would have been euthanized then if not for a rare opening at the Calgary Zoo. Very few other Alberta bears have had similar luck.

"To think that he wouldn't have been here because of issues that arose with humans in his natural habitat is really…Is really sad," Hoggard said.

Weighing about 330 kilograms (727 pounds) Skoki is a month or so away from hibernation, and there's every reason to expect he will awake once again in mid-March, but at his age time could run out any moment.

"There's no reason for us to believe that Skoki can not have a successful winter sleep," Hoggard said.

"We always have that in the back of our minds, and we do have plans in place for if the worst thing occurs."

CTV News reached out to Parks Canada and Laggan's Deli in recent weeks for this story but neither could accommodate an interview.