Lincoln Park Zoo welcomes brown bears (after 46 years) and rare new penguin chick

Lincoln Park Zoo has welcomed two brown bears for the first time since 1979, marking an exciting addition to its arctic exhibit. Ash and Lexi, both female brown bears, arrived from Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wis., and are now settling into their new home at the Walter Family Arctic Tundra.

According to the zoo, these bears share a special bond as their mothers were a mother-daughter pair, making them closely related cousins often called sisters. The bears were rescued as cubs in 2011 by Montana wildlife officials, after their mothers became too comfortable around humans and taught them to search through garbage.

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Since they learned behaviors that made them unsafe to return to the wild, they spent time at Dakota Zoo before moving to Wisconsin. The zoo explained that their arrival came through an animal exchange program that sent polar bear Siku to Madison with hopes for breeding. As winter approaches, visitors should plan their trips soon, because these bears may enter torpor, a natural resting state where their bodies slow down to save energy during cold months.

African penguin chick brings hope to endangered species

The zoo announced the hatching of an African penguin chick on Oct. 1, following a 40-day incubation period that brought new life to their penguin colony. Staff members at Lincoln Park Zoo report the chick is healthy and meeting important growth milestones under careful monitoring by animal care and veterinary teams. The biological parents, Rosie and Cecil, laid the egg as part of conservation efforts, but penguin couple Liam and Maria are raising the chick as foster parents due to their proven parenting abilities.

Zoo officials emphasize that every African penguin birth matters greatly, since the species faces critical endangerment, with breeding pairs dropping from 141,000 in 1956 to under 20,000 today. The chick currently weighs 4.23 pounds and will remain behind the scenes until developing waterproof feathers for swimming. Zoo representatives explain that African penguins, also known as black-footed penguins, are uniquely suited to Chicago's climate because they naturally live in warmer African coastal regions and have special body features to regulate heat.