Winnipeg polar bear oldest in world

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A Winnipeg zoo is home to the world's oldest living polar bear, Guinness World Records says.

Debby, who lives at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo, is 40 years old — double the life expectancy of most polar bears that live in the wild.

Zookeepers say Debby loves to get her beauty rest.
(CBC)

"We like to boast that we're the polar bear capital of the world, with all of the polar bears up at Churchill and along the coast," zoo curator Bob Wrigley said.

Zoo officials believe she was born in Russia in December 1966 and arrived in Winnipeg the following spring.

She spent years living in her enclosure with her former mate Skipper, who died six years ago.

Zoo keepers say the pair would huddle together outside through the night, even in -40 C. temperatures. In the morning, they would wake up completely covered in snow drifts, Wrigley said. Their long relationship was unusual for the usually solitary animals.

At a celebration of her Guinness record later this month, zookeepers plan to feed Debby some of her favourite treats  — smoked goldeye fish, veggie dogs and a fish frozen inside a block of ice.